Coincidental return
by ophelia-syndrome
Summary: Thanks to an unfortunate accident, Sasuke Uchiha is more or less voluntarily back in Konoha - but will he really stay there and how will the rest of the village and especially his old team take the news of his return? Read to find out
1. Encounter

Hey guys^^

This is my first fan fiction ever so I hope you like it and please don't be too harsh to it.

Well I'm actually from Germany, but I decided to write this story in English – don't ask me why… so if there are any crucial mistakes (except of spelling errors a.s.o.) it would be nice of you to point it out to me.

So then, the idea of the first chapter is actually from a fanfiction you can find here

www. myfanfiction. de/texte/naruto/a-sasusaku-story.37531.

It's a really good one, but the girl has unfortunately stopped writing on it and since that first part really stuck in my mind, I decided to use that first idea and turn it into my own story, by inserting a new character and so on – I didn't just copy anything but really gave thought to it – so again I hope you like it and by the way I've inserted an OC, but details are explained in the course of the story…

***

**1. Encounter**

Nothing made sense anymore. The lack of purpose in her life made her doubt the meaning of her own existence.

She felt lost.

She didn't know anything about herself – or better about the person she had been, before she had become who she was now; if that made any sense…

Her whole life was a mystery to herself; it was just way too confusing:

She had lost her memory when she had been about 12 years old, since then, only little random images of her past, that didn't really seem to fit together had crossed her mind and if that wasn't enough to trouble her, there was also him.

Three entire years had passed since he had left, but to her it felt as if it had just happened yesterday. She had always thought of him as one of the few persons that were able to understand her.

Having had a hard past himself and still being able to cope with it; he gave her hope for dealing with her own life. She had felt a strong connection to him and his betrayal of them – his friends, had hurt her deeply.

By leaving, he had shattered Team7, which she had always considered somehow as a replacement for a family, but he had just taken that little comfort she had away from her and even after all this years, she yearned to get it back.

Days came and days passed, time seemed to have gone out of control. Sometimes it was spinning so fast, that it was hard to keep up with it, while at other times, it didn't seem to pass at all – in fact even people seemed to be moving in slow-motion then.

Today was one of these days. She hadn't done anything special, but all the thoughts that had been running through her head, seemed way too much to fit into one single day.

A worn out smile crossed her face, as she stood there, eyes fixed on some distant place, not taking in anything of their surroundings.

You should think, that after spending years mostly in your head you'd run out of topics, but that was the last thing she had to worry about; she'd be glad if she could just turn her head off and let herself go, but that favour wasn't granted to her. She felt as if she'd been doomed to spend a life imagining how things could have turned out if she had been different, if only she had been a better person – a stronger one, she could have kept her life from going down the stream. But it was too late for regrets now; she couldn't change a thing anyway…

On the outside she always seemed to be a happy girl; she was always very polite and treated everyone with the due respect.

Those traits had made her very popular in the village hidden in the leaves – well after they had stopped avoiding her and gave her the chance to prove herself, at least.

She had made a lot of friends lately, but only few of them were really close to her and even those hardly knew what was going on inside of her and she wouldn't want it to be any different. She always kept her distance to other people; she never let her guard down.

Her recent past had taught her not to show weakness in front of anyone, but not showing weakness doesn't automatically mean being strong.

She had been able to put up a nearly impenetrable disguise that was able to fool even those people closest to her, but nevertheless she had never been able to fool her dearest friend: her dog.

He always seemed to know when she was in one of her moods and tried to cheer her up with a light-heartedness only an animal could show, but lately even her sensitive friend hadn't been able to pull her out of the darkness that seemed to enclose her and gave her a slight feeling of claustrophobia.

It was like one of those dreams in which you were falling down into a bottomless abyss, but since this was reality, the relief of waking up wasn't given to you. It was kind of like a constant state of weightlessness, but instead of enjoying this situation you just timidly waited for the dooming impact with reality that seemed inevitable at this point.

Another night passed with her standing at that cliff, thinking about why she was carrying on anyway.

The main reason that kept her from giving up on life were her friends. It's not like she thought they'd be able to pull her out of that deep black hole, even if she secretly wished for it, but matter of factly they didn't even know she was in it, so how could they possibly do something?

She just didn't want to let them down, she didn't have the highest opinion of herself but she nonetheless knew that there were people that cared for her, people that'd be sad if she wouldn't be there anymore. And so again she was just standing there, ignoring the pouring rain and imagining a fate she wouldn't choose in the end anyway.

Nevertheless she always came back to this place. Even though all she did was standing at the edge of the slope and glancing down into the depth. She figured the reason why she would always return to this place, was to proof to herself that she was living out of her own free will and that she could end it any time she wanted to. She drew strength from coming here, or at least that's what she told herself, but in the end she didn't feel any different than before.

Lost in her thoughts she took another step forward towards the cliff, nearly in trance, when a too familiar voice brought her back to reality:

"Coward."

She just stood there, rooted to the spot, taking a deep breath in, before dazedly muttering:

"Sasuke-kun…?"

"You just want to jump? – Pathetic." He said in an expressionless voice, scrutinizing the back of the girl standing just about three meters in front of him.

An insecure smile crossed the kunoichi's lips and she slowly turned around. It seemed like a dream, even though she wasn't entirely sure, whether she should consider it as a good one or a bad one and she didn't dare make any sudden movement because she feared that he would just fade away if she did.

But there he was, just about 10 feet away from her, looking as solid as ever, but still he had changed a lot from the way she remembered him.

He still had the same black hair, which stuck up at the back of his head, somewhat like a duck's back and the same onyx-eyes, even though they seemed to be even colder than they'd already been before, which she had thought to be impossible, but he sure proved her wrong.

He was also more grown up and even better looking than he had been back then, when he was still fighting under the name of Konoha, but still it seemed as if all warmth had faded away from him, and it was hard to read any emotions in his face.

He just stood there, motionless, with a superior air, surrounding his whole appearance, making the petite girl in front of him shudder in awe.

"Why are you here?" She asked not really expecting an honest answer, or an answer at all, but asking anyway. "Why have you come back?"

"Who said I had? What you're doing is stupid…"

"Even if… why would you care anyway? I mean you…" She started, but her voice broke and she was on the verge of tears now. She didn't like that whole thing. As if it wasn't enough that she had been caught in this awkward situation, no – the one who did so, just had to be her former team-mate who had contributed his part to the plight she was in right now, too.

"You better go home now", he said turning away from her and making his first steps back into the dark wood that lay behind them.

"No, wait -", she begged, taking a hasty step in his direction, but in that very second she slipped on the wet rocks and lost her balance.

With a last staggered shriek she fell into the depth – fell into the fate, she had just moments ago considered as infeasible.


	2. Unexpected

**2. Unexpected**

She thought she fell down – obviously, since the ground had just vanished from underneath her feet, but then she felt a firm grip around her wrist and she was stopped in mid-air.

When she looked up, Sasuke's tortured face was right above hers, and it was just then, that she realized how badly injured he was, and she felt that his grip was getting weaker, the longer he held on to her.

"Let go, or we'll both die!" She screamed desperately, but he just looked at her in puzzlement, not knowing whether he should take her serious or not.

"I mean it, I don't want anything to happen to you, just because I'm stupid – so let go!"

"Just shut up, will you?" It took him a lot of effort to get these words out, and he was sliding farther towards the cliff by every second. "I won't just let you die."

Now she was the one being puzzled, she just looked into his deep, baffling eyes and nodded. She saw the wounds that the rocks had cut into his skin and noticed that he was carrying a sling around his left arm.

Surprised but also encouraged by his determination, she tried to help him as best as she could. She stepped on a chunk of rock and pulled herself up a bit, but then the rock broke apart and they were both pulled into the depth.

"Sayuri!", the raven-haired boy exclaimed, sounding, to her surprise, almost anxious and during the fall he pulled the petit girl closer to him and covered her small form with his own body.

They both closed their eyes, and then there was the impact.

It wasn't pleasant, but not even nearly as hard as she had expected it to be, and when she opened her eyes, the young girl realized why – she had landed right on top of the guy of which she had thought that he wouldn't care for her anymore and now this– he had risked his own life, just to safe hers. Again she had been the reason for someone who's precious to her to get hurt.

She looked down at his athletic body, which seemed so fragile at that moment. The wet ground had muffled the collision a little, but he nevertheless was in a pretty bad condition. There was blood dripping down his brow and his lips were covered with the crimson liquid, too. The bandage he had worn was now completely torn and his arm pointed away from his body in an impossible manner.

"Sasuke…Sasuke-kun…" She stumbled with tears in her eyes and crawled closer to his head, putting a hand at his cheek.

"Sasuke please wake-up… wake up…" she cried getting desperate now. She raised her hands above his face and green chakra came out of it.

"Don't you dare die now, Uchiha Sasuke", she warned him and let even more chakra come out of her hands. She put all her energy in healing his wounds, but because of her own bad condition, caused by the fall, she was pretty weak and ran out of chakra soon.

"Damn it not now…no", she cursed herself and tried to overcome her limits. She was close to fainting, when he opened his eyes and stumbled: "You've become a Medic-Nin? Lucky me."

"Don't speak, safe your breath." She said crying and smiling at the same time. "You'll need all strength you have left"

"Sayuri, I…" – "Shht… safe that for later, but now tell me, do you feel any pain in your back?"

"No… nothing" His voice was fading, it seemed, as if he was in an even worse shape than she had assumed.

"I don't know if I can transport you, I don't want to deteriorate things even more."

"Hmm…" His eyes rolled back and he was unconscious again.

"No don't…" She pleaded but it was too late, if he had a concussion, he might never wake up again. She couldn't let this happen. She had just two options:

She could either stay here with him and try to use even the last bit of her chakra to heal him, which would definitely not be enough; or she could try to carry him to the Konoha hospital, but then she would have to move him, and take the risk of harming him even more.

What should she do?

If she took option number one he was already as good as dead, option number two seemed to be the more promising one.

"Alright – I can do that" The small girl encouraged herself. She pulled him up and leaned him on her shoulders, and then she half carried, half pulled the young man towards the village. Normally the way would have taken just about 20 minutes, but right now she felt as if she was already walking for hours and she was still not any closer to her destiny than she had been before, besides her spine was starting to hurt and her shoulders were totally stiff from the boy's weight.

Eventually they arrived the entrance of their hometown, finding the guards, sitting in a small cabin right next to it, seemingly asleep.

"Hey you guys!" Sayuri shouted desperately. "I could need some help here"

Isumo dropped off his chair. "What?! What's the matter?"

He asked, still confused since he had been just ripped out of the land of sleep and then during his working time - if something serious had happened, this would get really nasty for him – and it apparently was serious.

"Oh my god – is that, is that Uchiha Sasuke? The Uchiha Sasuke? What's he doing here?"

"Don't be so nosy and help me – otherwise he's as good as dead!"

Kotetsu had already arrived at her side and together with Isumo he carried Sasuke to the hospital, while Sayuri had already started to run there, to search the Hokage, in order to explain the situation to her and give her all the medical details she would need for treating the young man.

Just about 5 minutes later, the young girl was rushing through the main entrance of the hospital, when she saw a pink-haired girl, standing at a counter, obviously busy with some paper-work.

"Where is she?! It's urgent – please someone get Lady Tsunade!"

"Sayuri what's going on? What are you so excited about?" The pink haired girl asked in confusion and started leading her team-mate through the corridors.

After a short pause Sayuri, still totally out of breath, tried to explain the situation to her, but had no idea where to start and she was still so upset that she merely stumbled: "It's him – he has returned and… and if we won't do anything soon, then he'll… then he…"

"Shht. Calm down now. Who has returned and…"

"There's no time for this now, if we won't hurry he'll die." Sayuri urged her desperately.

Sakura just nodded and the two of them ran towards the room the 5th Hokage was in.

"Tsunade-sama! You need to… you need…" she started breathless, but was soon interrupted: "Get a grip on yourself now. Come on. Take a deep breath and calm down first, then tell me what happened."

"He, he came back and he fell… and, and he is wounded and he needs help – please hurry!" The young girl pleaded frantically.

"Just tell me whom you are talking about already?"

"Gomen-nasai. It's Uchiha Sasuke. He is back."

The pink haired Kunoichi twitched in shock and looked at her team-mate, completely aghast. It's been a long time since she had last seen him, she'd even given up hope of ever seeing him again, and now he was here, so close and yet she couldn't believe it.

Tsunade had a grim expression plastered all over her face, as she looked at the two young girls, she cherished so much. "Alright then." She nodded and led them out of the room.

"Sakura, go get Shizune and come to OR5. Sayuri you are coming with me."

"Hai." The two girls replied and then, without speaking, Tsunade and Sayuri went to the entrance hall, were Sasuke was already being provisorily treated by some nurses, while Isumo and Kotetsu were standing in a corner, awaiting further instructions.

Tsunade looked at the young Uchiha, with a mix of anger and sympathy in her eyes.

"His wounds are deep and he has lost a lot of blood." She said, while she examined his body. "Most of his rips are broken and his arm's got me worried, too."

"But you can fix him, right?" Sayuri asked insecurely. "I mean we've had worse cases than this, right. And he is strong…" She looked to the floor. Tears had filled her eyes again, not unnoticed by her Sensei. "You think YOU are strong enough for this? If you'd rather want to rest and…"

"No!" She grimaced desperately. "I can do that, please. It's my fault this happened in the first place, please – I can't leave him alone just now:"

The beautiful woman nodded knowingly, she wouldn't have expected her student to react any differently. She wouldn't give up on a patient, no matter how much it would demand of her, and she was proud that it was no different. She had become stronger – she wasn't the insecure, self-conscious person she had been when she had first met her. She had grown; probably more than she realized herself.


	3. Questioning

**3. Questioning**

Five hours had passed since the Uchiha had been brought to the OR, and still eight Medic-Nin were surrounding him in silence, concentrating vigorously to heal the young man with their chakra.

"Just a bit more" Tsunade insisted. "We've nearly got it."

No one answered but concentrated even more, determined to ignore the exhaustion that was already gnawing at their spirits.

And then, almost an hour later it was done. They had stabilized him for the moment, but due to the severity of his injuries he was still in mortal danger. It would take him some time to fully recover.

Relieved sighs reverberated through the room; even though he was a traitor, a Nuke-Nin, they were still glad they'd been able to safe him. As doctors they didn't care about a patient's past, they cared about human lives, and about future. For them everyone was an equal patient, they were obliged to treat with everything they had. For doctors there were no differences.

People started leaving the room, exhaustion and relief clearly visible in their faces; just Sakura and Sayuri stayed behind, and not only because they were too exhausted to move yet. They were sitting there, quietly, for quite a while until Sakura finally broke the silence. "So… he has returned."

"Seems like it… yeah." Sayuri replied with a forced smile on her face, she didn't really know what to think, yet.

"But, why…" Sakura started, when suddenly the door flew open and the head of the Fifth Hokage appeared in the open doorway.

"You two did very well today. Now, Sayuri, I want you to go to room 2.14 and stay there this night. Tomorrow morning I'll have a lot of questions to ask you. Sakura, you go home and get some rest, too."

"Hai." They both replied apathetically and left the room without saying another word to each other.

Sayuri went to her assigned room, and let herself fall into bed. She didn't think she'd be able to sleep this night, she just had way too much things on her mind, but the very second she closed her eyes, tiredness overpowered her and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When she woke up, it was already bright day. She wondered why Lady Tsunade hadn't woken her up, but then it occurred to her, that she might have tried, but hadn't succeeded. She disposed of that thought pretty fast, because someone with a temper as Tsunade wouldn't even have problems, to wake up the dead. She was most likely just worried about her student - the last day had demanded a lot of her.

She moaned slightly and pulled the covers over her head, her thoughts circling around the peculiar behaviour her former tem-mate had displayed.

Half an hour had passed, with her merely brooding about the last day, when a young nurse finally opened the door and stepped in.

"Oh, Sayuri-san, you're awake? I'm supposed to tell you to go to the Hokage's office, as soon as you've woken up and gotten something into your stomach." The nurse informed her, before looking at her in concern and asking "Are you okay? Are you feeling better yet?"

"Hmm… oh, I'm fine" she replied absent: "But no breakfast for me please, I'm not really hungry." In fact she still felt dizzy, and the mere thought of eating made her feel nauseous, so she figured it'd be better to keep her stomach empty for now.

"But Lady Tsunade said you..." The nurse insisted, but Sayuri interrupted her.

"It's allright. I'll tell her myself, don't you worry…"

And with these words she went out of the small room, leaving a baffled nurse behind.

From the look of it, it was at least two o'clock. The streets were already crowded with busy people, running from one direction into the other.

As she finally arrived the Hokage tower, she was immediately welcomed by Shizune, who seemed to have just gotten back from carrying out a delivery.

"Oh, Sayuri-san, are you feeling better now? Come with me, Tsunade-sama is already awaiting you."

"I'm sorry…" she stumbled, but Shizune was already dragging her up the stairs, towards the Hokage's office, before apologizing to her and rushing off to carry out another task.

The blue-eyed girl stopped in front of the solid door and knocked, but was held back by a "Just a moment".

She then leaned against the opposite wall and sank down to her knees.

How should she tell Tsunade what had happened? She had thought about it the entire morning, but still couldn't think of anything that wouldn't make her look too bad, event though she probably didn't deserve any better.

The one thing she knew was that she was not going to enter the office, telling her Sensei she'd been standing at that cliff, thinking about whether or not she should jump, when Sasuke saved her, from her own clumsiness.

She already saw the way Tsunade would look at her, in front of her inner eye – she has seen that look often enough, that mix of pity and shock and she despised it.

She was actually a good liar, but at the moment she was way too confused, it was just too much for her.

"Enter" She heard the voice of her teacher and did as she was told.

"It was a very arduous night, but I don't have to tell you, right?" The honey-eyed woman commenced.

"Hai."

"You're feeling alright?"

"Yes", she kept her answers as short as possible, while she still thought about a story she could tell her tutor.

"Well then let's start"

"Hai" she felt uneasy and her body language didn't hide that; she was standing a little crouched, looking down at her hands, trying to make herself as small as possible.

She still didn't know what to tell her sensei, but she had decided, that easiest was best, so that even if she was upset, she wouldn't be able to screw up too much.

"So tell me what happened. Right from the start." She demanded in a harsh back-to-business voice.

Sayuri didn't know where to begin; she was just standing there, looking at everything, but the woman at the desk in front of her.

"Well…" The young-looking woman, who was actually over 50 years old, became impatient.

"Hmm… allright. You know I was taking a walk out there, just wanting to be alone a bit, until I heard someone say my name. I turned around and then I saw him standing there, the rain made him appear totally blurry but I could still tell it was him. I was pretty shocked and didn't really know what to say and so we stood there in silence for quite a while until I asked him what he was doing here and if he was finally going to return." She started but was then interrupted by the 5th Hokage.

"Why were you outside of the village?"

That was one of the questions she had feared, so she merely stated: "As I said I wanted to take a walk, undisturbed…"

The blonde woman scrutinized her student suspiciously, but then carried on asking:

"Hmm… so what did he say then?"

"Oh - Well, if I think about it, he didn't really answer that question, even though I didn't notice it then."

"And what happened after that?"

"Hmm… he was turning around and started leaving, and so I tried to go after him, but I slipped on the wet stones and then fell from the cliffs, but he got hold of my hand and tried to pull me up. However than we both fell and I landed on top of him, that's why I didn't get hurt…Well – I guess that's about it." She finally looked into Tsunade's eyes, because she thought otherwise she'd know immediately that she hadn't told her everything, this way she had a small chance at least. Tsunade's piercing stare seemed destroying, she could hardly bear looking into these clear eyes, that seemed to be analyzing even the slightest movement or change in her mimic.

"He saved you?"

"Yeah… hard to believe, huh?" A sad smile crossed the young girl's lips and she looked down to her feet again, putting her arms around her torso, bracing herself as if trying to avoid getting hurt again.

Tsunade figured why she did so – she had probably misconceived her question, thinking that she was doubting the fact that he had saved her of all people and not that he had saved anyone at all, as she had actually meant it. She hadn't overcome all of her self-doubts after all, Tsunade thought compassionately, before asking her last question.

"Did you notice anything, about his physical condition?"

"Hmm… not really, but wait – he was wearing a sling around his arm. Yes. That's it."

"I see. " Tsunade said lowering her gaze. "If there's nothing else, you might go; but stay close in case I have any further questions to ask."

"Hai. But Tsunade-sama, do you… do you know how long Sasuke will stay unconscious? I mean, will he wake up soon?" Sayuri asked worriedly.

Her Sensei started eyeing her again, until she finally answered. "I don't really know. He is well trained, but his wounds are pretty serious… the next days will show if he's able to recover from them or not."

"Thank you, Sensei." She said and was just about to leave when she heard some familiar noise coming from the corridor.


	4. Bad Joke

**4. Bad joke**

Tsunade made a face, and now looked about twenty years older, than she did just seconds ago.

"Yo, I need to see the old Hag" she heard a well known voice on the corridor, followed by the desperate voice of Shizune. "No you can't go in there now; Tsunade-sama is having an important meeting."

"Can't be more important than my request!"

With a loud bang the door slammed open and the Number One Knucklehead Ninja stormed into the room.

"Hey, Grandma Tsunade!" The chaos ninja shouted, while a vein on Tsunade's forehead started throbbing sinisterly.

"Naruto. How many times have I told you not to call me like this?" The Hokage said in a low voice, trying to stay calm.

"Oh, whatever. You know I've been bored lately, there are no missions at the moment and so I thought, you could let me carry on searching for Sasuke. There have been rumours about him recently, I'm damn sure we'd be able to pick up his trace again. I just feel it. Please Granny Tsunade, put me on this mission!"

"Well, well… So you just wanna go and search Sasuke, hmm. I don't know. Your record is pretty bad. I don't know if I can entrust you a mission as important as this one." Tsunade said smirking to the totally baffled Naruto.

"Are you kidding?" He said disbelievingly, and what's so funny anyway?"

"Well, I guess I should grant you your request but I have one condition."

"Condition, yes whatever it is – I'll do it, believe it!"

"You'll never call me Grandma, or Granny or Old Lady or anything again, you got that?" she demanded with a diabolic grin on her face.

"Of course I will, I mean I won't! Oh man I can't believe it. This is awesome! I don't even now where to start searching first and -" Naruto babbled enthusiastically until he was interrupted by Tsunade again.

"Hang on. Just one more thing. I won't let you take the mission alone of course. Sayuri over there will be your Team Leader; you've got 24 hours to find him, starting now."

"WHAT! Just 24 Hours, I don't believe it, that's unfair and – oh… Hi Sayuri. Since when are you standing there?" The knucklehead Ninja asked baffled.

"Well actually I was even here before you…" She answered smirking at the joke Tsunade made with Naruto. She was impressed that this woman could even keep her cool at times like these.

"The better it is. C'mon we gotta go, time's running out, we need to get going!" He urged her, taking his friend by the hand and pulling her out of the Hokage's building.

"Naruto, stop, hold on, we need to make a plan first." Sayuri stopped her team-mate as soon as they had left the Hokage tower; she had decided to carry on the game Tsunade had started, since being with Naruto was always good for cheering up her mood, and besides she was really looking forward to seeing Naruto's face when he found out, that his (once) best friend, was finally back home.

"A plan?!" Naruto asked, as if he'd never heard anything more absurd than this. "There's no time for a plan, the Old Lady is crazy! What the hell does she think by giving us such an impossible time limit? The old crow must have gotten senile seriously!" He argued, while Tsunade sneezed in her office, causing her bowl of Sake to tip over and spill its liquid content, all over the documents she had just been working on.

"If we just run off like this, we won't find him anyway."  
" So what do you suggest?" Naruto asked sceptically, looking around in order not to miss anything, which might in the end turn out to have been crucial.

"Well I guess first we should both go home and pack some stuff, we might need for the mission. Allright? We'll meet again in an hour, in front of Ichirakus Ramen Shop."

"In an hour?! We don't have the time, we need to hurry, or…" Naruto objected, but was interrupted by Sayuri again. "Naruto, I am the leader of this team, right?" without waiting for an answer she carried on: "I say we'll meet again in an hour, and that's how it is, okay? Now get going, you are just wasting time!"

"Ahh…! You're right! I'll get going, believe it!" And with these words he ran off towards his flat, still cursing about Tsunade's constrictions.

Sayuri couldn't help but to laugh about her friend. She felt a little guilty though, but just a little. She was amazed how her mood had just changed in that short time from an absolute low to a total high. That was one of the reasons why she cherished the blonde boy so much as a friend. He was a bit like her dog, innocent, naïve and always in a good mood – he might be quite annoying sometimes, but nobody's perfect and at least it was never boring with him.

She kind of saw him as a younger brother, even though he was in fact older; but his behaviour made it impossible to tell.

With a devious grin on her face, she went home and thought about how she could torture him a little bit more, and how she would tell him that Sasuke was back.

She took a lot of time to pack her things, thought about it again, and then stored her bag somewhere besides the couch. She called for her dog and decided to take him out for a long, soothing walk.

Almost two hours later, Sayuri and her dog finally arrived at Ichiraku's, where they found a totally distraught Naruto, next to a huge pile of empty bowls.

"Where the heck have you been? I've been waiting here for hours. I was so excited I've eaten more Ramen than I could pay for, believe it!"

"Really? Oh dear…" She smiled innocently. "I'll lend you the money, don't mind that. We have to concentrate on our mission now."

"Yeesss!!! That's just what I'm talking about the whole time. But wait. Where's your bag?"

"My… Oh no. Dammit I must have forgotten it." She laid a hand on her forehead melodramatically, putting all possible effort in trying to keep a straight face.

"You – WHAT!" He shouted disbelievingly. "What have you done the whole time, watching clouds like Shikamaru?"

"Clouds? – No, not really. If you really want to know it, I've been thinking about what we're going to do next."

"And?!"

"Well, I've been getting some utensil, which could be useful for our mission."

"You have? What is it? Show me! Where have you got it?" he questioned her impatiently.

"Well, it is…"

"Yes – where…where?"

"It is in my bag."

"WHAT?!" his mouth was standing completely open and his eyes seemed to be popping out of their holes, he just couldn't believe how his actually very reliable friend could behave so headless in such an important situation.

"Oh damn it, than what are we waiting for? Let's go to your house and get it. Hurry up!" He screamed and was again dragging her by her hand the whole way back to her dwelling.

"Where is it? Just where have you left it?"

"Well…hmm… Wait. I came in and went to the bathroom first, than I went into the kitchen and then to the bedroom" – "Bedroom?" She was interrupted. You don't really have a bedroom! You're whole house just consists of a bathroom and a normal room, that's it!"

"Oh true… But I still like to refer to the corner my bed stands in as the bedroom." Sayuri said absent-minded with a dreamy voice. "Ah… I got it, it's right over here you see?" She grinned.

"Fine then let's finally go, we've wasted more than 2 hours already. So what is the super tool we've come here to get?" Naruto asked curiously.

"You wanna know it?" Sayuri asked him with a muffled voice.

"Sure I want to" Naruto replied, wondering why she acted so mysteriously.

"Are you sure?" She asked coming closer to him.

"Yes of course" Sayuri pointed him towards her.

Naruto swallowed and drew his head closer to hers, until their faces nearly touched.

"The thing I've found…"

"Yes…"

"…Is…."

"…Yes…"

"Well I guess it's a secret." Sayuri grinned and pushed his nose. Before Naruto could even reply she went out of the house, leaving a completely dumbfounded blonde boy behind.

"Are you coming or what?" She asked and Naruto finally started to move.

"Hey that's no fair! What is it now? Come on – tell me!"

"You'll see. Just you wait."

"NO WAY! Tell me now! I want to know it – believe it!"

This one-sided-conversation carried on for quite a while, until Naruto asked. "Hey Sayuri, where are we going to anyway, hm?"

"We're going to gather some information, of course. What did you think, huh?" Sayuri teased him, hardly able to keep a bright grin from appearing on her face.

"Wowow-wait. Are you telling me we had to pack our whole ninja equipment, just for questioning some people?!" He shouted hysterically.

"You never know what might happen – better over than under-prepared, right?

"Arghh... I don't believe it, we're never going to find Sasuke when we just run around here doing nothing!"

"Naruto, it's not like we are doing nothing. The time-limit of this mission makes it impossible to search him just like this, we need to have a starting point, and as you already said there have been rumours about Sasuke lately, and matter of factly I know where the source of this information lies, and that's where we are heading to now." Sayuri said calmly and carried on walking towards the centre of the village.

"You do? You really do know it?! Then why the hell didn't you just say so? Where is this person? Where? C'mon let's hurry!" Naruto laughed with newborn enthusiasm.

"He's in the hospital, that's why I know about him"

"Ah, I see…Aha, aha" Naruto nodded knowingly.

"But he won't give us the information just like this. If we want something from him, we'll also have to do something for it,"

"Ah - it's never easy! But what does he want?"

"Well, we'll find out about that. The thing I'm carrying in my back was the first part of our deal; we'll see what he will want next. But I tell you, he's a very weird man, his wishes are most likely to be pretty unusual."

"Oh, I knew it, but that doesn't matter – he knows something about Sasuke, that's reason enough to do whatever he wants to, believe it!"

Sayuri couldn't hold back a smile, the day turned out to be better, than she had expected when she woke up and again Naruto was the one she owed that for.


	5. For a friend

**5. For a friend**

Finally arriving at the hospital, the two ninjas went into the third floor and walked towards room 3.03, where they at last stopped.

"Ready?"

"Ready." Naruto replied and knocked at the door.

"Come in" A voice from within the room told them.

When they opened the door, they found themselves, facing an old, fat man with a long beard that nearly reached down to his chest making him look like an overfed wizard in a way.

"Do I know you? What do you want?" The old man asked.

"We are here to do you a favour" Sayuri started in a kind of secretive tone.

"Yes – we'll do whatever you want, believe it!" Naruto concluded.

"You are here to do me a favour? Oh how very nice of you. Well then, there really is a thing I want, maybe you could help me?"

"Sure, sure, sure. Just tell us and please hurry we don't have much time!" Naruto urged.

"Youth…" the old man sighed: "always in a hurry…"

"C'mon, what is it? What do you want?"

"You're serious? Okay then… Well, you know my daughter, same as me she's not getting any younger, but she's in an age now, where she should finally settle down, but it seems like she's just unable to find a proper man to do so with..."

"So you want us to find a husband for her – are you serious?!" Naruto asked startled.

"No baka, I want you to marry her!"

"WHAT!!! No way! I'm too young to marry. No way, no way, no way!!!" Naruto was totally freaking out, but the old man only laughed.

"Ha-ha, calm down, will you? I was just kidding. It was just a joke, no need to loose it like that."

"Mr Agarashi is a funny man, didn't I tell you?" Sayuri laughed. "But now seriously, is there anything we could do for you?"

"Well actually, there really is. I'm having problems with an itchy rash, right at my back. I could really need someone to clean it a bit and do a bit of scratching there."

"What! Man that's not much better than the first option!" Naruto screamed hysterically, bouncing around like a rubber ball.

"Well, I leave this to you… I still have a patient to see. Take care." Sayuri said vanishing out of the room with a huge smile plastered all over her face.

"WHAT!!! You can't do that! Sayuri-chan don't you dare… hey don't you dare leave this – Hey!" Naruto shouted in despair, but the young girl had already left the room.

Disappointed Naruto turned around again, to face the old man, who had already taken off his shirt.

"And don't you miss out that spot right underneath my shoulder, you hear, boy?

"Teme this is for you – and dare the information not be good" Naruto said determinedly, but more to himself than to anyone else. "Oh man, here we go" and with a dismayed face, he started treading the old man.

Sayuri walked out of the door and came to a stop in a deserted corridor. She leaned against the cold wall and sighed.

She knew Naruto would be happy, when he found out that Sasuke was finally back, even though he'd probably send her packing, as soon as he discovered her little joke, but everything would be okay as long as Sasuke stayed unconscious.

But what would happen when he woke up?

She still didn't know, if he had wanted to come back, or if he was just passing by coincidentally.

What if he would just abandon his friends again? Naruto would be devastated.

He had tried so hard to get his friend back, if he lost him again it would be even worse this time, because it'd mean, that Sasuke really preferred his new life over his old, and that he hadn't missed his old friends at all.

Why did things always have to be so hard?

She could just hope, that the fact, that he had saved her life meant that he still somewhat cared for his friends. She really wanted to believe that, but actually she doubted it.

Thinking back she regretted agreeing to carry on Tsunade's joke and keeping Naruto on tenterhooks, but it couldn't be changed now, anyway.

So, after standing there, motionless for quite a while, she finally decided to end Naruto's suffering.

She went back to Mr. Agarashi's room, where she found a dead beaten Naruto, next to a fairly satisfied looking old man.

"Ah! Sayuri-chan there you are at last! I've just finished, and I'm ready to die now…" Naruto stumbled exhausted.

"Yes, he did pretty well. I had no idea today's youth was that beneficial, really." The old man grinned, mischievously.

"Beneficial?" Naruto asked shocked:"Wa-wa-wait! The information! I nearly forgot it! Now tell me, old man, where the heck is Sasuke?!"

"Sasuke? Which Sasuke?" Mr. Agarashi asked clueless.

"Uchiha Sasuke, of course! Now don't play games – tell me where he is!"

"Ah… that Sasuke, I see. Well he is an Uchiha right? And where are Uchihas normally?"

Naruto followed the old man's lips tensely and didn't even dare breathing since he feared he might miss something crucial. The whole room was so quiet, that you could have probably heard a needle drop, until Agarashi broke the silence.

"Well in the Uchiha district, of course! Where else should he be, silly?!"

"What?!"

"Ah wait. Hasn't the last Uchiha left the village few years ago?"

"Of course he has! Why else would I ask you anyway?!" Naruto shouted furiously but Mr. Agarashi replied offended.

"And why the hell should I know where he is then, Mr Rude?!"

"Because… Say-"

"- Ehm… Naruto-kun? I guess I've mixed up something. The information isn't in room 3.03, but in room 2.03! I'm sorry..." Sayuri apologized sheepishly and bowed slightly.

"WHHAAATTTTT!!!!!! You're saying I just lost all my dignity here for nothing? It was all in vein?!"

"Well, not in vein… See it like this; you did something good for an old man - that was a really decent move of yours." She stopped as she saw how Naruto started building up in front of her, already pulling up his sleeves, so nothing could hold him back.

"Ehmmm... Naruto calm down, will you? Let's go and get the real information then…"

And with these words she stormed out of the room, before Naruto, in his temporary condition, could do something reckless, he would probably regret later anyway – well maybe he wouldn't… the rash had really been gross…

"Hey wait!" He screamed and came after her. They were rushing through the numerous hallways, of the huge hospital, until they finally stopped in front of room 2.03.

Naruto planted himself in front of his friend and got ready to vent his anger, with an insane look in his eyes and his cheeks all flushed, reminding a little of Hinata.

He filled his lungs with as much oxygen as they could possibly keep, so he wouldn't have to pause during his rant for something as trivial as breathing and he was just opening his mouth to let it all out, when a small hand pressed firmly against it. With one hand on Naruto's mouth and a finger of the other hand in front of her own, she motioned Naruto unmistakably to be quiet. As soon as she felt him relax, she dropped her hand and uttered under her breath: "Geez, we're in a hospital – Calm down, will you?"

"But you –"

"Shht."

"But –"  
"Shh…"

"Oh fine, but the ramen I've just eaten goes on your account – I sure won't pay you back!"

"Okay then, can we go in now?"

"And this is not a bad joke this time?"

"No not really…"

"What do you mean 'not really'?"

"Well, depends…"

"Huh?"  
"Naruto – just go in."

The blonde haired boy still eyed his friend with a sceptical face, waiting for her to just burst out and shriek 'punk'd!', but since nothing like this was happening, he turned towards the door and hesitantly placed his hand on the doorknob.


	6. Surprise

**6. Surprise**

"Allright, here goes nothing." Naruto said and opened the door. After taking a few steps in, he came to a sudden stop.

"Is this… is this real?"

He couldn't believe what he was seeing; the bed right in front of him was occupied by no one else but his long lost friend: Sasuke Uchiha. The Uchiha that had left them 3 years ago and had tried to kill him twice during that time. The Uchiha that had refused to come back, no matter how hard they had tried to convince him and now he was here. This just couldn't be real.

"What…When…" Naruto stumbled incredulous, seeking Sayuri's eyes, in search for answers.

"I found him yesterday, right outside the village. We fell down a cliff and he got hurt pretty badly, as you can see…" Sayuri said in a muffled voice, not looking at Naruto who had, up to that point, not seen all the machines that were connected to Sasuke – he had just been too distracted.

"You had a fight?" The blonde boy asked her, scrutinizing her body in search for any wounds or other signs of a fight.

"No – I guess then I wouldn't be here anymore…"

"Hmm… so how is he?"

"He's most unlikely to wake up any time soon, but he'll probably make it." Sayuri told her absent-minded friend, finally looking at him with a forced smile on her face.

"So he came back…" Naruto said slowly, looking down at his clenched fists, which had begun shaking. "I don't BELIEVE IT! He's here! He's finally here, that stubborn idiot. I can't believe it! Say-chan this is awesome!" The Knucklehead Ninja started dancing through the room, taking Sayuri's hands and hurling her around. "This is so awesome, awesome, AWESOME!!! Does Sakura-chan know already? She'll be thrilled and – wait-" Naruto had stopped dancing and looked at his friend warily. "You mean, you knew all the time that he was in here, and you made me run through the whole village and even made me clean that old MAN!"

Sayuri couldn't help but laugh at the face, the blonde boy was making. "Hey this wasn't my idea, Tsunade-sama started it – but it was just too hilarious, I couldn't resist."

Naruto was still trying to play the offended, but he was just so happy, that he couldn't keep it up for long.

"This is incredible – but hey, Sayuri-chan, do you know when exactly he'll wake up?"

"Well I already told you, it'll probably take some time, but we don't know for sure." Sayuri answered, glad about the fact, that Naruto didn't ask any further questions about how they had met.

"I see, I see… Oh man! I've got it!" He started enthusiastically with a broad grin on his face. "We should go to his house and prepare a welcome-back party, believe it!"

"Well… that'd be pointless; you don't really think that as soon as he wakes up, he'll be allowed to leave the hospital. He's a Nuke-Nin after all, so he'll probably have to go through a lot of investigations and most likely even interrogations, in order to find out about his motives. They also need to see if he is trustworthy and they'll probably hold a trial, to judge all the things he has done, while being with Orochimaru. The first time won't be easy… and – I don't want to disappoint you, but we still don't know if he wanted to come back after all…" Sayuri felt bad for destroying the illusions of her naïve friend, but she felt, that, after having pulled the wool over his eyes for the entire day, he finally deserved to hear the truth. But the smile on the boy's face didn't falter, in fact, much to her surprise, it even grew wider.

"Oh come on, don't be such a naysayer. Everything will work out just fine, you'll see. Why should he have come here, if he didn't want to return? And Tsunade-baachan has sent us on numerous missions concerning the retrieval of Sasuke before. She wouldn't deny him to come back, there's no way she would, believe it." He finished putting his thumbs up with a smile o his face that could easily keep up with Lee's.

Sayuri was impressed by the perpetual optimism the young boy showed. She really admired him for that.

"You're right." She smiled. "Well then, to make up for what I've put you through today, how about I treat you to some ramen, even though it'd be the second time today then…?"

"Ramen?! Of course, let's go! C'mon!" Naruto started dragging her away. "Bye teme!" And with that the two of them headed to Ichiraku's Ramen Shop, once more this day.

…

…

"Yo hey – another one for me!" Naruto demanded, hardly able to look over the pile of empty bowls that was already stapled in front of him. Sayuri couldn't help but shake her head at her gourmand friend. He must have eaten at least 20 portions this day and he still didn't seem to be saturated at all.

"Say-chan, what'ssit? Aren tyou hungry atall?" Naruto asked with his mouth still full, not really expecting an answer, since he was to busy concentrating on his food.

"I'm fine, don't mind" she answered still lost in thoughts, when the appearance of a well-known group of people caught her attention.

"Well, well, look who we've got here", the dark-haired man observed, while entering the small diner.

"Nara…" the blond ninja replied glumly, unhappy about being disturbed during his meal.

"Hey Shikamaru." Sayuri stood up hugging him. "What are you three doing here?" she asked as she caught side of the other two members of Team 10.

"Hey, Sayuri-san! Naruto." Ino greeted them cheerfully, while Choji just slipped all courtesies and went right to ordering his food.

"How's it going? Haven't seen you two for ages. What have you been doing?" Shikamaru asked, eyeing Naruto suspiciously, who had just taken the chance to steal a morsel of Sayuri's soup.

"Hmm… you see… this and that, nothing special I guess", Sayuri started, when Naruto interrupted her: "What?! Talk for yourself, I've been doing some really hard top secret training and I've done several missions lately, so I've been pretty busy. And then today, you won't believe it, but – OUCH!!!" Sayuri kicked her team-mate as hard as she could, without raising too much attention.

"What the…-" the knucklehead ninja started furiously but was again interrupted by the young girl. "Well, you know we've been in the hospital today and Naruto did some voluntary work for an old man and so I've decided to treat him for some ramen, you know."

"Ah, I see, so it's not really voluntary work after all, huh? But I guess it was still a decent move of yours Naruto" Ino diagnosed, looking at the puzzled face of the chaos ninja, who still brooded over why Sayuri had kicked him, when she suddenly stood up and demanded the bill, without even asking if he had finished yet, what he in fact hadn't, but it was too late now.

Once the two of them were outside and out of anyone's hearing range she turned towards Naruto and glowered: "Baka! What do you think you are doing?!"

"Hähh" was his clever reply, which made Sayuri just roll her eyes. "Didn't it ever occur to you that the news of Sasuke's return isn't meant for everyone's ears?"

"Whaat - Damn it! You're right. I nearly let it slip. That was a close thing, huh? So with whom can I talk about it?"

"Well, I guess everyone from our old team should be alright. Sakura knows too, and I bet so does Kakashi. But maybe we should go and ask Tsunade-sama about what will happen now, I mean, even if Sasuke really wanted to stay, do you think they would let him?"

"What?! Of course they would. Everyone will be delighted to have him back. Well… except of the Hyugas maybe… with the Uchiha-clan back in the village they'll have hard concurrence about the title of Konoha's most powerful clan …" Naruto mused, nodding his head as if in agreement to his own statement.

"C'mon, Sasuke is just one person, you can hardly talk about a clan there, but anyway, I don't think it'll be this easy. Not everyone is as forgiving as you are. People see him as a threat, which definitely is a matter of fact, and they won't just overlook his betrayal. He is a Nuke-Nin after all, maybe there is a reason why he's here, maybe Orochimaru has planned something and he -"

"Sayuri-chan…" Naruto cut in, "Do you really think he would do something like this. I mean he left us – no point in denying that, but do you think he would willingly do something that could harm Konoha?"

"I… I don't know" The young girl sighed helplessly, staring down at her feet.

"Well but I know" Naruto grinned triumphantly "But we'll see soon enough so let's go home; all the food is making me tired, believe it!"

"Hmm…okay" she smiled back at him, still not really able to share his enthusiasm, but trying at least.

"There is nothing we could do now anyway."


	7. Contemplation

**7. ****Contemplation**

A dim light was breaking through the shabby window lattice, covering the petit girl underneath it with a golden shimmer.

Her tired eyes opened slowly and it was clearly visible, that she hadn't gotten much sleep that night. Dealing with the recent events had occupied her mind completely and left no time for something as insignificant as sleep.

The conversation with Naruto was still haunting her. How could he just be so damn optimistic in a situation such as this? She really envied his indestructible enthusiasm and wished she could be like this too, but knew it wasn't possible.

She was different. An outsider.

When she came to Konoha, everyone was nice to her, reserved though, and wary, but still polite and over the time she had been able to make a lot of good friends – which wasn't easy for her at all. She has never been a very outgoing person, probably because of the uncertainties that clouded her past.

She remembered the day when she had first met Team 7, the actual Team 7 before she had become a part of it.

They had found her in Kiri-Gakure, badly injured and without any memories of her past. In fact, her injuries had been so severe, that most of her body and more than half of her face had to be covered in bandages, what didn't really make socializing any easier.

They took her with them into the house of Tazuna, where she was supposed to recover and allowed her to watch and later even participate in their training. She did pretty well and they discovered her ability of being able to see things without using her eyes, which was pretty helpful in the fight against Zabuza and Haku, since she had been able to see through Zabuza's 'Hidden mist Jutsu'.

Since she didn't know what to do with herself and her ability was just too valuable to be wasted, Kakashi-sensei decided to take her along to Konoha, where she was heartily welcomed by the Sandaime, even though not everyone shared his blind trust in the strange girl without a past.

Over the years she had succeeded in proving trustworthy to almost everyone and it wasn't too long ago, that she had finally been acknowledged as a member of the village.

But in spite of that, she still felt alone.

Not alone, like she didn't have any friends, but alone like something was missing.

Her amnesia wasn't the reason for this hollowness – she didn't really know why, but she was sure, that her past was something she didn't want to remember.

Most likely she was just missing an intimate relationship, as you would have with a family or a lover. The first thing should be unreachable for the time being and the second one seemed impossible to her, too.

After the bandage-time was over, people had discovered that she was rather pretty and she was courted by quite a lot of guys, but still something inside of her seemed to be reluctant to respond to any of these offers.

As soon as she noticed that a guy had feelings for her, she subconsciously distanced herself from that person and every time someone was getting close to her, not only emotional but also on a physical level, something inside her head went into panic-modus and she was overwhelmed by a sudden urge to just run away. So even if she wanted to have a relationship, it was kind of like impossible for her to attain.

And now he was back. The guy whom she's gotten strength from during all this time, because he had shown her that life goes on, no matter what happens. And it would go on for her, but whether he would again be an active part of it or not, was written in the stars.

She wasn't even sure if that was what she wanted after all; because she was convinced, that even if he would come back, he would never see her the way she saw him, he would never acknowledge her as a friend and therefore his presence would just be a reminder of what she'd never have. So she could neither live with him staying, nor with him leaving – it was just a dilemma.

She turned around, away from the light, and stared at the blank wall, that was now in front of her, trying to block out her thoughts. Again she was doing what she could do best – driving herself insane.

However before she could go back to the hospital she had to clear her head of all these intricate thoughts, so she took a deep breath and decided to take a cold shower, before she would do anything else.

…

…

About a cold-as-ice torture and five cups of coffee later, she felt ready to face another day of her fabulous existence – _not;_ - but she had no choice anyway, so she got ready and headed towards the hospital where she was already awaited by Sakura.

"Sayuri-san, there you are. Tsunade-sama has asked for you to come to her office as soon as possible. Seems like the situation is pretty serious at the moment, everyone seems tense and there are a lot of ANBUs in the hospital. People already get suspicious but the situation is to be kept top secret." The pink haired girl finished and received only a slight nod of her opposite and they started to walk down one of the many hallways.

Hoping to gain some more information the pink-haired girl started again: "So… do you have any idea? I mean… why did he…?"

"I don't' know." She interrupted her, „I guess I'm as clueless as everyone else is. Just as always he is the only one that knows what's going on inside of him."

"Yeah I guess you're right…" Sakura replied sadly.

It had always been like this; she used to think she would understand him, but she ended up being disappointed. If she had really understood him, she could have kept him from leaving, back then when there'd still been a chance - when there had still been some deeper connection between him and his friends; before he had 'severed the bonds' as he called it. But she hadn't been able to – she'd been too weak. She had worked on herself, in order to change that, so she'd be able to live up to his expectations. But would it matter now? Or is the gap between them still too big to overcome? She wanted nothing more than for him to return, and to acknowledge her growth. But what if he just wouldn't.

Could she stand being rejected for a second time?

She just wouldn't let it come to this again. This was the chance she'd been waiting for; she would fight for him no matter what, she wouldn't let him go away again, this time she would make him stay.

…

…

After knocking, Sayuri and Sakura entered the Hokage's office, where they found the Godaime napping over a pile of unsigned mission reports, right next to an empty bottle of Sake.

Sayuri cleared her throat loudly, but without success, so she tried something else:"Tsunade-sama! Tonton is going for your Sake-stocks!"

"WHAT!" she shrieked jumping up. "Someone stop it! Oh… Sakura? Sayuri? Ehem… What the hell has taken you so long! When I say come as soon as possible I mean it!" The Hokage tried to talk herself out of this awkward situation by scolding her students.

"Gomen-nasai, Tsunade-sama." The young girls apologized, bowing down to hide their grins. "So what did you order us here for?"

"Actually I just ordered Sayuri; you may return to your patients now Sakura, thank you."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama", the pink haired girl replied deflated and cast a rather cross look at the girl next to her, before leaving the office.

"So…? Do you know anything yet? I mean how will you proceed. Tsunade-sama?"

"I've consulted the council-members and they are rather discontented with the temporary situation. Of course they imply to eradicate everything that might pose a potential threat to Konoha, and therefore they want to dispose of Uchiha Sasuke as soon as possible – publicly…-"

"What! You can't do that. We don't know if he's dangerous, maybe he has changed –and up to now his sole interest has been killing his brother; he has never done anything to harm Konoha. You just can't –"

"Sayuri, hold it for a second." The fifth interrupted her frantic student.

"I said, that was the opinion of the council-members, I never said I would share it. I've ordered an ANBU squad to watch his room around the clock, and even now the occurrence of Uchiha Sasuke being in Konoha is kept top secret. As soon as he awakes he will be interrogated by Morino Ibiki, everything else will depend on the result of this."

"Meaning if you like what he says, he will be allowed to stay, but held trial for his crimes, what will either end in his staying in jail perhaps for the rest of his life or his execution, but if you don't like what he says, or if he's reluctant to talk to you at all, he'll be executed right away. Either way, he's not going to leave this village alive. Am I right?"

"Not necessarily, but that's the mayor plan, yes."

"What other option would there be?" Sayuri asked sceptically, facing her teacher directly now, instead of just staring into the distance. "Most of the people see him as a traitor, which is unfortunately the truth, so they will probably share the opinion of the elders and want him to be executed."

"Maybe you are right, but then again you have to remember whom we are talking about: he is an Uchiha after all, and people would be eager to see the Sharingan back in Konoha rather than anywhere else and you need to consider something else too; even if he was given the death penalty, do you think he would just let it happen without any resistance? I think if he wouldn't want to stay, there would be nothing that could keep him here."

"So you're appealing to the people's sense of security, convincing them that he would be less a threat if he was to stay here, than if he would go anywhere else, right?"

"Well, that's what it would lead to, if the results of his interrogation proved to be satisfactory, but if they don't…"

"I see…" Sayuri replied, "Is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Yes, just one thing, in case he will be held trial you will have to testify your version of the story. So, is there anything you haven't told me yet?"  
"Hmm… No. I think you know everything." She answered more to the ground in front of her, than to her opposite, who eyed her rather suspiciously, but then dismissed her, deciding to believe her, even against better judgement.


	8. Reminiscence

**8. Reminiscence **

After leaving the Hokage's office, Sayuri decided to go back to the hospital and look after her patients, not admitting to herself that she actually wanted to look after one patient in particular.

After killing some time by doing her usual rounds, which she had performed so lost in thoughts, that she hardly remembered any of it, she found herself in corridor 2, unaware of how she had gotten there. She didn't really want to see him now, but her feet carried her towards room 2.03., which was guarded by a couple of ANBUs, who didn't really look too inviting, even though there masks didn't give their facial expressions away.

"Identify yourself." One of the masked men demanded in a harsh tone.

"I'm Sayuri, member of the captive's medical team."

"Hmm… You may enter." After a brief second they stepped aside, and opened the door for her.

Tsunade must have informed them about her, otherwise it wouldn't have been this easy for her to get in, however as she entered, a most familiar picture was exhibited to her: The still unconscious Sasuke was lying in his hospital bed, while a concerned, but still somehow content looking, pink-haired Kunoichi was sitting right beside him, holding his hand.

Sayuri felt like she'd been thrown back in time, the only thing missing now was a hyper-active Naruto, saying something stupid, which leads to him getting knocked out by Sakura. The young girl couldn't help but to smile at her little private joke and at the memories of a time, when everything had still been okay.

Maybe it would be like this again…

No.

She didn't really believe it would and so she didn't want to give in to false hopes.

"Hey, Sakura-san." She addressed the other girl, but was hardly noticed. "Any changes in his condition?"

"No, nothing." She finally sighed. "I guess he just needs some more time, but at least he's out of the woods for now. So – what was it that Tsunade had to talk to you about so badly?"

Sayuri looked at the now somewhat edgy face of her fellow Medic-Nin and merely replied: "Tsunade-sama just wanted to inform me that I will have to give evidence, in case he is to be held trial. That was about it."

"Hmm… I see." Sakura sighed soothed; she didn't like being left out, especially not when it was about things concerning her Sasuke. Her Sasuke – it's been a long time since she had last referred to him like that; usually when she was arguing with Ino about their share of him and now… Now he was back, just physically though and still he had been able to revive all the feelings for him, she had suppressed for such a long time.

It was as if nothing has changed and yet everything was different.

She was eager for him to wake up and tell his side of the story although she was afraid of what she might hear. That's probably what everyone felt, well everyone who felt close to him, even if that was not mutual; it would probably make no difference whether he was asleep or awake, he wouldn't pay attention to them anyway - they meant nothing to him, he had made that one clear. She would like to believe he had changed, that he'd come back only for her, but that was plainly naïve. Nevertheless that didn't mean she had given up on him. This time things would be different, she wouldn't let him go again. She had done everything to reach up to his expectations, she wasn't that weak annoying girl anymore, she had grown and she would make him see it, so that he'd finally acknowledge her. And than, maybe he would begin to like her, maybe after spending some time in Konoha, he would realize that he had missed it and then decide to stay forever. It would be just too good to be true.

Sayuri observed the pinkette's face, that seemed to be lost in thoughts. She wondered what they were about, if they were anything alike her own thoughts. Were they full of hope or of defeat?

They both remained in that room for quite a while, not exchanging a single syllable, until the silence was broken by some noise, coming from the hallway.

The two of them looked at each other in alarm, till they could make out Naruto's voice in the quarrel. Apparently the chaos-ninja had planned to visit his old team-mate, too, unlike the girls, he wasn't able to pass the guards without difficulty, leading him to protest at the top of his voice, as if that was able to change anything about the instructions of the two ANBU-nins.

After a few amusing seconds, filled by Naruto's desperate pleas and the ANBUs` stoic orders , Sayuri opened the door and confirmed, that the boy really was into everything and so, after a great deal of persuasion, Naruto was finally allowed to join his other team-mates as well.

"How's it going teme?" He entered cheerfully as if nothing had happened, regardless of the fact that his addressee was oblivious of this friendly meant insult.

"Naruto-baka he's asleep" the pink-haired girl clarified at once, not able to suppress the hint of frustration in her voice; the room was getting way too crowded for her taste.

"Ohayo Sakura-chan!" He either hadn't noticed her bad mood, or he was just ignoring it; he didn't let it affect him anyway. "So how's our sleeping beauty doing? Still out of it? How unlike him to waste time he could use for training..."

"Naruto, if you won't shut up I'm gonna make you. Got it?!" Sakura glowered calamitous.

"Hai, hai." The chaos ninja gesticulated with his hands, trying to soothe the infuriated Kunoichi – he wouldn't make the mistake to take her threats lightly, he had experienced them first hand way too often. "Ano sa, ano sa Sayuri-chan, how about some Ramen? I'm like starving."

"Are you saying that after I went through all this trouble of getting you in here, you want to leave already? After just about half a minute? Are you serious?" she stared at him in disbelief, but he just replied: "Ano… he's just sleeping anyway, so what? Get me when he's awake or something. So… are you coming now or what?"

"Hai!" she giggled; he would never learn to mince his matters – one of the things she liked best about him. "Sakura-san, how about you? Are you coming too?"

"No, no. Just go. I'm not really into ramen anyway."

"Haha Sakura-chan that was a good one! Not into Ramen, hehe. As if that was possible! Anyway your loss. Sayonara - let's go Sayuri-chan!" He stated impatiently, grapping Sayuri's hand to prevent her from keeping him away from his favourite meal any longer.

…

…

About an hour later, the two comrades were still sitting in front of some huge piles of empty bowls (Naruto's share), still unable to move after their extensive meal and also afraid of receiving their bill.

"Man… if I keep on eating like this, I'll soon look like a walrus." Sayuri moaned, patting her stomach.

"Say training?" Naruto concluded grinning.

"Oh yes…" Sayuri confirmed stretching the words longer than they actually were and so, after paying their way too high bill, they headed towards the training grounds, which were already occupied by a group of familiar looking ninjas, that didn't seem to have noticed them yet.

With a bold grin on his face, Naruto suddenly vanished into thin air, only to appear behind one of the Shinobis in training the next instant, pointing a kunai to his throat.

"How careless of you Neji, I would have expected more -" The chaos ninja was interrupted when he felt something hard pressing against his back.

"Who's careless now, hn?" The Hyuga corrected the blonde boy smugly, before his bunshin dissolved right in front of him.

"Damn Hyuga…" Naruto cursed, as he realized that his ambush had failed.

A simple "Hmpfh…" was all the Hyuga would condescend to, as the arrival of a well-known Kunoichi caught his full attention.

"Konnichiwa you three!" Sayuri addressed Neji, Lee and Hinata, who had been the ones, who had been training on these fields up to now.

"Ohayo Sayuri-san." The clan-heir stiffed up. "How are you doing today?"

"Fine Neji-kun, thank you." She grinned at him, almost making him blush.

"K-konnichiwa…N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata stuttered barely audible.

"Oh hey! Didn't see you Hinata-chan, I'm sorry!" The blonde ninja apologized grinning, before noticing the strange colour, the young girl's face had changed to.

"Ano, Hinata-chan? Are you okay?" He asked concerned, appearing just an inch away from her face the next second.

"N-Naruto…" she just stumbled before everything around her turned black and she fainted.

"Hey! Hinata-chan! What's it?! Hey!" Naruto pleaded helplessly, but the others just shook their heads; it was just incomprehensible how the knucklehead-ninja could be so blind, that he still hadn't noticed. He admittedly wasn't the brightest one, but still Hinata's behaviour was so obvious, you just couldn't believe that he still hadn't seen through it.

"Oh, what passion! What incomparable dedication! The power of youth is almost palpable! Oh Guy-Sensei if you could only see this!" Lee soliloquized exposing his teeth as good as possible, revealing the (in)famous smile he had copied from his idol Maito Guy.

Ignoring the babbling Lee and the helpless Naruto, Neji turned to Sayuri again. "Soo, what are you two doing over here?"

"Well isn't that obvious?" She smiled, but at the sight of his clearly puzzled features, she explained: "We actually meant to train a bit, burn calories and so on… you know? Mind if we join you?"

"Oh, no… of course not" Neji replied rather taken aback. "So what should we do?"

"Well… since Hinata is out of it for the moment we can do a fight you and Lee against Naruto and me. How about it?"

"Sure let's do it. Did you hear Lee!"

"Of course I did! We're gonna wear them down!" The guy in the green jumpsuit exclaimed triumphantly.

"We'll see about that." Sayuri grinned before filling her team-mate in on their plans. "So can we start?"

"Hai!" everyone agreed before vanishing into the woods, out of the opponents' visual field.


	9. Training

**9. Training**

After having found a small place to hide, that didn't restrict their movements, in case they would meet any sudden attack, Sayuri turned to Naruto in order to discuss a strategy, with which they could fight their two opponents best.

"So… they are both rather short distance fighters – Lee especially so we should -"  
"Sayuri-chan?" she was interrupted.

"Huh?" She looked at her team-mate in puzzlement.

"Can't we just go and do it like always?"

"You mean - Just fight?"

"Just fight." Naruto confirmed and they both beamed at each other, before heading out in search of their combatants with the intention of having the surprise effect on their side.

However thanks to his Doujutsu, Neji noticed their approach early enough and therefore they had the tables turned and set a trap for them. So, when the remains of Team7 finally appeared at the small clearing, where Team Guy had beforehand been scheming, they were already awaited by a bunch of Kunais and Konoha's beautiful green beast with his Dynamic entry, which was just able to hit one of Naruto's Kagebunshins, which then disappeared with a plop!

Now knowing the enemy's location, Naruto directed more of his shadow clones towards Lee, while Sayuri started looking for Neji, who had thus far remained concealed.

She slowly closed her eyes and concentrated on her surroundings, until she could sense a well known chakra and was just about to go for it, when, in that very instant it vanished.

…

…

Neji, who had just waited for the right moment to act, reappeared behind Sayuri's back and pointed his most powerful weapon: his outstretched hand, at it, but before he could hit her, she dissolved into thousands of butterflies, which then surrounded Neji and blocked his view.

This problem, was effortlessly solved with his Hakkesho Kaiten, a chakra shield which could fend off all the moths, but as soon as he stood still again, he was directly attacked by Sayuri, but could easily repel her assault, by grabbing her wrists, hurling her around and slamming her against the next tree-trunk, harder than he had intended, causing her to gasp out and sink down to the ground.

"Sayuri-san, I'm sorry… I didn't mean too…" Neji stammered contritely, and bend down to her, when he felt something stroking his calf and a weird numbness started spreading through his leg, causing him to go down on his knees and look straight into Sayuri's grinning face.

"Never let your guard down." She smirked and he realized that she must have used medical-jutsu to sever the chakra strings, running through his leg.

…

…

Meanwhile Lee was facing innumerable Narutos, sending them into nothingness one by one, but still not getting any closer to an end of the fight, when all of a sudden they vanished, and the real Naruto was nowhere to be seen, until Lee perceived some movement to his right.

Discovering the source of it, he used his Konoha senpu against a Naruto that turned out to be a mere shadow clone as well.

Having observed the whole scene, the blue eyed ninja considered the moment right to strike and so Naruto prepared his Rasengan and dashed towards Lee, who was able to dodge it just in time.

…

…

Realizing it was a big mistake to underestimate the petite girl in front of him, Neji prepared to strike, this time for real, but his anaesthetized leg was slowing him down and so Sayuri had no problem in avoiding his attacks and was able to get some room between them. She then started throwing Kunais at him, but without much success, so she again decided to use tai-jutsu on him, even though that was the thing she managed the worst.

Neji however, who discovered the seriousness of his situation, was caught in an interior conflict, deciding whether or not he should risk using his Hakke Kusho on her, when the sight of her foot right in front of his face, made his choice easier, and he started concentrating chakra into his palms and then throwing it in waves at his opponent who was then again tossed against a tree.

…

…

Since Lee was able to counter all his attacks, Naruto was slowly but surly getting annoyed. Even with his countless Shadow clones, he wasn't able to keep up with Lee's speed, when he was suddenly hit by an idea, and a huge mischievous grin spread all over his face.

Lee who hadn't missed the change of emotions in Naruto's countenance was irritated at first, but then put his guard up, waiting for his next movement, when he heard him say:

"Oiroke No Jutsu!"

…

…

Neji cautiously approached the apparently unconscious girl, unwilling to fall for the same trick again, when he heard her mumble: "Ouch… that did hurt."

"I'm sorry, let's just call it a day and stop right now."

"Sounds good to me." She replied and was helped up by Neji, who again regarded her rather anxiously. As soon as she was standing, more or less steady, she used her medical jutsu on her head, and then also on his leg, before they started to search for Lee and Naruto.

…

…

Rock Lee's jaw dropped, at the sight of the beautiful – naked – women, which were just slightly covered by some clouds at the most intimate places and he started to stutter some unintelligible stuff, before dropping down to the floor with a bleeding nose and an overjoyed smile on his face.

Naruto dissolved his jutsu and couldn't keep himself from laughing at the sight of his drooling friend, when he saw Neji and Sayuri arrive.

"What did you do to him?" the young girl asked her comrade staggered, who still wasn't able to bring out any understandable words between his laughing fits, when Lee finally regained his senses and bubbled something like: "You beat me. Such facets of youth. I didn't anticipate that…" Then he suddenly jumped up and carried on soliloquizing with new found enthusiasm, as if nothing had happened before: "I guess I still have to train a lot, starting right now – since I lost to you, I have to do 5000 laps around Konoha!" And with that and a sudden burst of energy, he rushed off, leaving his friends behind in complete bafflement.

The three shinobi stared at the green flash, vanishing quickly in the distance for quite some time, no one finding the right words to comment on Lee's behaviour so they just shook their heads in annoyance and turned away.

"So… hey! How about some Ramen?" Naruto introduced his idea of the one and only way to complete a successful training.

"Are you kidding? Again? We are just coming from there, you can't possibly be hungry again." Sayuri stated uncomprehending and started looking after Hinata.

"So what?"

"Huh… You know what, don't mind, I'll bring Hinata to the Hospital and then go home. Thanks for training with us Neji-kun and say thanks to Lee, in case you see him. He was off so quickly, I had no chance to thank him personally. So – goodbye you guys."

"Bye Sayuri-chan!" Naruto waved enthusiastically, while Neji just uttered a simple bye and was just about to leave too, when he was held back by the chaos Ninja.

"So how about it Neji? Let's go to Ichiraku's now!"

"I'd rather not." Neji replied stoically and started walking off, but Naruto was unwilling to give up that easily. "Ah come on! Some Ramen after training – there isn't anything better, believe it!"

"I've already eaten, so cut it out."

"See? You really should eat something, you're so hungry, you're already grumpy!" Naruto hypothesized, earning a deadly glare by the infuriated Hyuga, who didn't even bother anymore to answer the pesky blonde and just walked ahead obstinately, but when even that didn't work on shutting the Uzumaki up, he was no longer able to hold back his anger and yelled at him. "Is there no one else for you to bug?!"

Naruto looked at him in puzzlement and shrugged his shoulders "No." he just said and restarted working on Neji, until he finally, even though just for the sake of keeping his sanity, gave in.


	10. Interrogation

**10. ****Interrogation**

The dim light of an early morning, breaking through a hardly draped window, illuminated the white skin of a raven-haired shinobi, whose eyes still remained shut, even after 5 days in coma – or so it seemed, because actually he had already woken up a few hours ago and was just going through his momentary situation, pondering about how to make the best out of it.

He knew, he wasn't alone in this room, even though his watch; obviously, had remained immobile all the time, until, somewhat at noon, a replacement took over for him.

He was back in Konoha, there was no doubt about it. The place he had never expected to set foot in again. The place he had never wanted to enter again.

There were just too many connections to his old life. The life in which he was weak and dependent, because of his "comrades", which had kept him from gaining power. Those so called friends, who had him remain weak and unable to achieve his aims.

Yes. He had never expected to end up here again, but now it couldn't be helped.

He was just about to indicate his awakening, when he heard some noise outside his room, before the door was opened and, judging from the sound of the steps, a young girl entered his room and placed herself silently right beside his bed, before gently stroking a strand of hair out of his face.

Not expecting any kind of affection, Sasuke was so surprised, that he nearly gave away his status. After all he had done, how could there still be someone here who'd care for him? But then he was reminded of some past hospital-stays and he knew at once, that the person next to him could be no one else but his former team-mate Sakura. The annoying, clinging girl that used to claim she loved him.

Looks like she hadn't changed at all. How pitiable.

Not really keen on her company, the raven-haired boy decided to carry on pretending to be asleep, when the door was opened again and another woman entered.

"How's his condition?"

"Tsunade-shishou!" The pink-haired Kunoichi called out in surprise. "He's stable, but hasn't woken up yet."

The blonde woman looked closely at the Nuke-nin in front of her. "I see. Thank you Sakura-san."

"But…"

"You may leave now." She was interrupted by her sensei and since she knew that Tsunade was no one to mess with, she left the room obediently.

The fifth Hokage wandered wordlessly through the room, until she reached the window through which she gazed blankly.

"You're awake." She stated after some time, causing him to open his eyes, as if in affirmation.

Still not turning around she carried on: "Your intentions will decide about your fate. In case you'll pose even the slightest threat to the Leave-Village, you'll be executed. Remember that." She informed him calmly and turned towards the door, but before stepping through it she muttered. "Your interrogation will start after you've undergone another medical-check up. If you're scheming anything – we'll find out." And with that she finally left the room.

Interrogation.

Something he had expected and even though Orochimaru had taught him how to get past every kind of questioning, he nonetheless felt a little awkward.

He had no doubt in his abilities. He wasn't afraid of the interrogation - passing it was just the first step, what he was really anxious about was what would happen after it.

…

…

With a resolute gait, the Godaime paced through the corridors of her hospital, until the sight of a well-known young girl, made her stop in her tracks.

"Sayuri!" She bellowed, causing the girl to twitch at the harshness and especially the volume of her voice.

"Shizune and you are to prepare a council meeting for this evening. Invite everyone who is of a high rank, emphasize the importance of the appointment and allow no refusal - and don't say anything about the reason for this meeting, you hear? It is to remain top secret. I'm counting on you girl, now hurry."

The fifth finished and was just about to leave when she heard the soft voice of her student.

"He woke up." She simply stated, not expecting an answer, but to deep in thoughts to take in her surroundings.

"You're still here? Get going girl!" Tsunade reminded her again, loud enough to break through to her and have the young girl running out with a hasty "Hai!" before starting her search for Shizune.

Entering the main hall of the hospital Tsunade called out immediately: "Migaki!"

The stern looking Iryonin stepped towards Tsunade with a questioning gaze in his eyes.

"Summon Morino Ibiki immediately. He knows why. Don't waste any time." She ordered her subordinate, who set off instantly.

Leaning against a wall, savouring that short moment of serenity, the blonde woman ran her fingers through her hair and took a long deep breath. It was going to be a long, unpleasant day; she would need all her strength and especially nerves, to live through it.

She let her eyes wander through the big hall, catching sight of a pink haired girl, sorting some documents. With a final sigh of resignation, the fifth approached her student and put a hand on her shoulder, causing the young girl to turn around in puzzlement.

"Sakura. Sasuke is awake. At the moment he's undergoing some last medical check up and then his interrogation will start."

First unable to speak, the pinkette soon gathered her senses back and stared at her sensei in shock: „He just woke up and you want to interrogate him? You can't! It's too early, he could be… he could still be…"

"Shh…Sakura; his being interrogated is not an option. The longer we wait, the more untrustworthy his story will appear. We don't know what's expecting us anyway and I won't take his side unconditionally. If I don't like what he says, I'll make sure he won't be able to gain a foothold here – "

" – that won't be necessary." Naruto who had happened to overhear their conversation interrupted. "Everything will be allright again. You'll see."

"Naruto…" Sakura glanced at him hopefully.

The blonde boy smiled at her reassuringly. "Let's go and visit teme!"

"That won't be possible." Tsunade intervened. "He's not allowed to talk to anyone before the questioning starts. But you can go see him, right after the interrogation is over."

"Hai!" They both said in unison. "Then let's go wait in front of his room, it shouldn't take too long – teme was never one to talk a lot." Naruto crossed his arms and nodded his head, as if to affirm himself, making Sakura laugh and agree to him and so the two of them set off, leaving behind a content smiling Tsunade.

…

…

After having arranged everything, Sayuri simply felt devastated. Almost three hours of sorting documents and running through the whole village to find even the last person on the list, Shizune and her had created and then also convincing them of the importance of the meeting, but not being able to name any reason.

Some people just felt themselves way too important to do something without having any background knowledge a.s.o.

The young kunoichi had reached the end of her tether, but nevertheless decided to go to the hospital and check how things were going.

Reaching the second floor, Sayuri saw her two, quite tense looking, team-mates sitting on the floor in front of Sasuke's room and stepped towards them.

"What's going on?" she asked them in a muffled voice, before seating herself next to them.

"They are still at it." Naruto answered her, not lifting his eyes off the door, as if expecting it to fly open at any second.

"When did they start?"

"About two hours ago."

"Hmm."

The remains of Team7 sat there without speaking a word, each occupied with his own thoughts, until the silence was broken by Sakura: "You think he'll pass?"

None of her team-mates had an answer to that so she carried on "That is if he wants to come back after all."

Everyone was simply staring at the floor, when finally the door opened and Morino Ibiki, followed by his assistant Mibu Shinobu left the room, without even looking at them.

Soon after that Tsunade departed the room as well and winked at the group sitting at her feet, before going after Ibiki and Shinobu.

The three nins looked at each other, trying to figure out what the others took Tsunade's hint as.

"Does that mean it went well?" Sakura asked warily into the round.

"Well – let's go in and find out." Naruto suggested getting up.

"I'll pass. You go; I still have some things to do." Sayuri said apologizing, before waving goodbye to her friends and rushing out of sight.

"What was that about?" Naruto asked sceptically, keeping his eyes fixed on the girl's back. "I thought she wanted to see Sasuke too."

"Well, I guess it can't be helped. Shall we?"

The two nodded at each other encouragingly before turning to the door and slowly opening it.

…

…


	11. Changes?

**11. Changes?**

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura reluctantly addressed the raven haired figure, sitting upright in the hospital bed looking out of the window.

"SASUKE-TEME!" Naruto stormed into the room, as boisterous as ever and went right to his old friend. "You're staying in Konoha, or what?!"

But the addressee didn't even bother to answer or even look at his former team-mates. He just kept on staring remotely out of the window, when the sight of a young girl, departing the hospital, puzzled him for a second, but he went back to his nonchalant expression right away, so the blonde boy who was just wandering around the bed to face his past-friend saw nothing of it.

Their eyes locked, but no one said a thing for a while, until Sakura stepped to her comrade and asked: "You are staying here, aren't you?"

Sasuke's cold obsidian eyes turned to her, but unlike Naruto, she wasn't able to keep the eye contact for more than a few seconds. Still with a blank face the Uchiha finally replied: "Doesn't seem like they'd let me out alive, anyway.", before looking out of the window again.

Naruto and Sakura took his answer as a yes and smiled at each other relieved. Then they decided not to bother the Uchiha any longer, so they said goodbye – without getting a response – and left the room.

As soon as they had left the hospital, Naruto cheered: „He's really going to stay! After all these years he's back!"

"Yes, seems so." Sakura agreed sanguine. "And he came back of his own free will, no one forced him."

"I know - isn't that awesome? If that's no reason to celebrate than I don't know what is. It's a pity Sayuri left already; I wonder what has gotten into her all of a sudden."

"I have no idea."

"Well anyway. Let's go to Ichiraku's and celebrate!"

Laughing, the pinkette shook her head, she just couldn't understand Naruto's Ramen obsession, but she agreed anyway, it really was a day to celebrate, or so she thought, because up till now, they had both blocked out the fact, that it wasn't entirely Sasuke's decision if he would stay or not, but the decision of the council, and if that was so ardent on having the Nuke-nin back, was disputable.

…

…

After rushing home and finally reaching her little hut, the violet-haired girl leaned herself against the door and slowly sank down to the ground.

Angry with herself she tried to settle her thoughts that were just all too obscure.

He'd been right back then; she really was a coward. She had been too afraid to enter his room and find out about his decision, because she was sure, that it wouldn't be a pleasing one.

She had promised herself, not to let him get to her again and yet she knew, that if she had seen him again all her resolutions would have been just blown away.

She couldn't deny that she still cared for him, it was the same as with Naruto – she felt for them as if they were part of a (made-up) family, but she could at least keep herself from acting it out. Even if that meant never seeing him again; she had made her decision and she would stick to it – she owed herself that much, because she knew that in the end he would do nothing but hurt her again.

After some time, brooding over her own feelings, Sayuri got up and looked at the dog, which had been sitting next to her all the time, quietly giving her some comfort by his mere presence.

"How about some walking, Scootie. Hmm?" She asked and received a joyful bark in response.

…

…

After more or less an hour of random wandering around and even more thinking, Sayuri and her faithful companion reached home again, when, just about ten minutes later, she heard someone knocking at her door.

"Just a moment!" The young girl called out before opening the door and, to her surprise, finding Naruto in front of it.

"Naruto-kun? What are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd share some information with you." He explained with a cheerful expression.

"Come in." Sayuri stepped aside and nodded towards the small sofa, still not sure if she wanted to hear anything at all, but encouraged by her friends' optimistic appearance.

"So how did it go?" she nevertheless asked rather insecurely.

"Seems like it went well - what am I saying it went awesome: he does want to come back and of his own free will. Can you believe this? After all this time of chasing him without any success, he comes back just like this. I bet no one would have thought it to end this way but anyway, I'm really happy about it and… turn out well… Teme…Ramen…. " Naruto babbled on, not realizing, that he had lost his auditor already after the first sentence.

He was coming back voluntarily? How was that possible? She would have never thought, well she had thought of it, but had never taken it seriously into consideration, that he really wanted to come back. She had been sure that he was only passing by when he had found her and that he only came back to Konoha, because she had more or less dragged him there, due to his injuries, but now…

"Sayuri-chan?" Naruto interrupted her thinking, cocking his head to the side like a baffled puppy. "Are you listening?"

"Hmm?"

"Thought so. Aren't you glad that he's back?"

Avoiding his question she looked to the side and asked instead: "Naruto-kun?"

"Yes?"

"Why exactly, did you say, does he want to return?"

The blonde looked at her in bafflement, not really grasping what she was aiming at.

"I don't know. What does that matter, anyway? – He's back!"

"Well…umm, but what did he say to you?"

"Hmm… he just said that they wouldn't let him leave alive anyway. Yes, that was about it."

"Doesn't sound too optimistic, if you ask me; not that voluntary and everything, like you pointed out. More like he would just stay because he has to." She indicated in an restrained voice.

"Stop being so negative! Seriously, you are like spoiling everything. Maybe he didn't say anything else, because he didn't want to admit, that he missed his old home and his friends – how about that?!"

"Well, you think he did?"

"He would probably never concede it, but I mean he has spent the last years with that paedophiliac snake Orochimaru! There's just no way he wouldn't have missed us."

"Hmm…maybe you're right." Sayuri finally resigned, but just because she was tired of arguing any longer, not because she was really convinced by his illustrations and since she didn't want to squash his hopes, she just put on a cheerful face and smiled at her best friend.

"Sayuri? Why didn't you come and see him, too?" Naruto asked reluctantly, stunning the girl right next to her.

"Umm… you see I've had some stuff to do, some deliveries… for the hospital – yes and then there was also Scootie. He had to take a walk quite badly, you see?" Sayuri looked at her friend, hoping he would just swallow the- admittedly blatant lie without asking any questions, but she was disappointed quite soon.

"You're like the worst liar ever! I just don't understand it, like when he left, you were totally distraught and now that he came back, you don't even seem to care. What's with that?"

"Naruto I just… I can't – I just don't want to be disappointed again. I remember all too vividly the day he left, or the day we finally found him and he just attacked us and talked about cutting the bonds – I just don't want to be hurt again. I couldn't stand that."

"Sayuri-chan…" Naruto murmured with a poignant voice and even more emotions in his eyes.

"How can you take it, Naruto? He was your best friend, you fought so hard to get him back and now it seems as if it finally happened, but what if he'll just take off again? If he's just staying in Konoha because of the medical supply and will vanish as soon as his wounds are healed? Wouldn't it be even more painful, when he leaves, after you've raised false hopes and pictured for yourself how things were going to be from now on? What would you do then? Would you just carry on living as if nothing had happened?"

The blonde boy looked down to the floor, not wanting to meet her out laid feelings with a thoughtless response.

"I guess that would be best, but what if you couldn't do that?" she enquired urgently.

"I guess that's when it's tough."

Surprised by this statement that was so un-narutoish, the young girl's eyes widened in puzzlement, but her friend carried on: "No one can promise you, that everything will be fine. No one can tell you the future. But what kind of life would that be, in which you would only lock yourself up, out of fear of being hurt? Life's not easy and it never will be, and even if you fall down a lot and make bad experiences, that doesn't mean you can just lie down and die - there's nothing that could justify giving up!"

With a painful expression Sayuri looked at the boy – the Jinchuuriki – next to her. He had gone through a lot, probably more than others would have been able to cope with and yet he has never given up – he has never even considered it. She had always admired his strength and wished she could be like this too, but she knew she couldn't. She was just not made like him, but she would try anyway, because even the smallest step into the right direction, his direction, would be a step for the better.

"Arigato, Naruto-kun." She whispered laying a hand onto his.

"Häh?" the blonde boy enquired intelligently, but decided not to ask anything further. The two of them just sat there, close to each other, in a comfortable silence, no one feeling the need to say anything, until Naruto finally stated:

"It's getting late; you must be tired – I better go home now."

"Okay – goodnight Naruto-kun."

"G'night Say-chan." Naruto grinned before hugging his team-mate. "See you tomorrow!"

"Hai" Sayuri smiled, before closing the door behind her friend and making herself ready to go to sleep.

…

…


	12. Council Meeting

**12. Council meeting**

About 40 eminently respected people from the village of Konoha were gathered in the large assembly hall of the Hokage tower, immersed in various discussions, mainly about the reason for this meeting, which was a mystery to almost everyone in the room. In front of them, Shizune tried nervously, to calm the whole crowd down, but without any success until the door in the back finally flew open and Tsunade, followed by Ibiki walked with a proud and determined pace towards the head of the room, ignoring the restrained whispers, that seemed to emerge from almost everywhere.

"I believe you've all wondered about the reason for this convention and about why everything had been done so secretly." The fifth Hokage began her speech after clearing her throat. "Well the reason is quite simple – Uchiha Sasuke has returned to Konoha and he has requested to be reintroduced to society."

After finishing this sentence, all hell broke loose, everyone trying to give voice to his own opinion – which wasn't really different from anyone else's – but repeating it anyway, just for the sake of being louder than the others.

"What?! That can't be true!"

"Yes he can't seriously think that after all he did, he could just come back!"

"That traitor – I say we kill him!"

"Yes this is our chance!"

"The sooner the better!"

"He has to pay for betraying the Leave village!"

All of the active participants in this debate seemed to be of the same opinion, until someone threw another thought into the room.

"Are you kidding? He's an Uchiha – do you really think he would just stand there and watch, while we try to execute him? – I doubt it."

"If we come up with our ANBU-squads there's not much he could possibly do!"

"Have you forgotten that he has the Sharingan? – he could probably just trick them!"  
"Trick a dozen of people simultaneously? How should he do that?"

"You remember his brother, Uchiha Itachi? He was able to kill his whole clan, which were far more than just a dozen people, without any difficulties – and I'm telling you Uchiha Sasuke's power is nothing short of his!"

"But what if he betrays us again: He has joined Orochimaru after all, and I bet no one has forgotten that this one had tried to destroy Konoha before. Maybe it's just another scheme of his"

Everything seemed to be going just as Tsunade had predicted and she silently let the conversation carry on for quite a while. Then, about fifteen minutes later, the Fifth, whose presence everyone seemed to have forgotten about, cleared her throat again, causing the room to fall completely silent at once.

"I understand your discrepancies, concerning this highly delicate matter. Due to these very objections we have already interrogated the Uchiha to find out about his real intentions. Morino Ibiki, head of Konoha's torture and interrogation squad, is going to tell you everything he found out during his questioning. Ibiki-dono, if you please."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama. I expect absolute silence." Ibiki started, looking into the room with a firm gaze, making sure everyone got the message.

"Uchiha Sasuke wishes to be allowed to return to Konoha; in return he promises to share information concerning Orochimaru and his whereabouts, besides that, he also ensures his unrestricted cooperation with the Fire country. To the reasons for his decision, he merely declared that Orochimaru wasn't able to teach him anymore. I've interrogated him for approximately three hours and I couldn't find any lie in his elucidations. It seems as if his motives are serious." After these last words of his short, but instructive report, Ibiki retreated and took his place at the left side of the Hokage, who again, merely watched the discussion rise once more, without interrupting it.

"So what? Even if he is serious, that doesn't make up for the crimes he has committed in the past!"

"That's absolutely right! Just because he's an Uchiha, doesn't mean he should receive any special treatment."

"Are you kidding? This is our chance to get the Sharingan back to Konoha – I say we seize it!"

"He's a murderer, we can't allow him anywhere near our families."  
"But he's coming back voluntarily – and with no ill intents. If we won't keep him, he'll just search another place and then the Sharingan is lost, maybe even to our enemies! Imagine what that would do to our families!"

"He's right – we are neither able to imprison, nor to kill him, it's probably for the greater good to keep him here and make use of his abilities. This way he can at least make up for some of his past crimes with hard work."

Again, Tsunade just waited quite awhile, not feeling the need to interfere, before announcing that after fifteen minutes of quiet consideration, a voting would take place, deciding about the future treatment of Uchiha Sasuke.

Everyone in the room was still, seemingly weighing the pros and cons they've just listened to, with a grave and intense countenance. This was not a case to take lightly - everyone knew about that; and due to their intensive concentration, the fifteen minutes seemed to have flown by like nothing, so everyone was surprised, as they saw the Godaime stand up and announce the vote to start, after reminding them, that abstention was not an option.

"I know the time you had to decide about a case that significant was quite short, but you are either for his staying, or against it. Those of you, who are strictly against his returning to Konoha; raise your hands now."

Tsunade stared into the round, counting the votes, before she carried on:

"And who of you approves of his returning?

Most of the people, raising their hands at this option, seemed rather reluctant to do so, but after counting the hands again, Tsunade called out:

"That makes 21 votes against his staying and 23 for it; accordingly Uchiha Sasuke will be allowed to return to Konoha – of course we'll not let him run about as he likes – I'm going to make all the necessary arrangements together with our crisis squad and the ANBU. The results will be announced tomorrow; same time, same place; I expect your attendance and remind you again, that no word shall be passed about Uchiha Sasuke's return, until the official publication of this matter. Did everybody understand that?"

A low murmur went through the crowd; many people were quite offended by the harsh words of their leader, but no one was even nearly brave – or suicidal enough to disobey her.

"I take that as a 'Yes'." The blonde woman looked with a threatening, not to say mocking gaze into the room. Unable to find any resistance, she carried on: „Herewith I declare this meeting as closed. You may leave now.", and with these last words, she and her 'team' left the room.

…

…

Everything went right as she had predicted, much to the dislike of Danzou, as she had noticed from his motions. She trusted Ibiki and his skills, he was the best – until now he has never erred once and she was just reluctant to believe that the first time had come now of all days. If it wasn't for her confidence in Ibiki, Tsunade would have intervened in the discussion and directed it more into another direction, but as it was now, she hadn't felt the need to do so. And besides, Sasuke wouldn't be allowed to comeback just like that – he would be under surveillance most, if not all of the time, otherwise the people would probably revolt anyway.

Ugh – it would be damn hard to reintroduce Sasuke to the village; with his background, people would probably be running from him whenever they caught sight of him, but that was his own fault and he would have to deal with that. Well, if he cared about it at all, that is.

Lost in these thoughts, Tsunade almost automatically gripped into one of her drawers, pulling out a bottle of Sake and starting to sip at it.

She just hoped this whole Sasuke-thing wouldn't turn out bad, she hoped that for the sake of the whole village, but especially for the sake of his past team, she happened to be quite fond of.

"It's been a tough day." Shizune stated while entering the office. "You must be tired."

Tsunade just nodded at this way too obvious discovery, before pulling out another glass, filling it with Sake and handing it to her assistant and also best friend.

"To a whole lot of paperwork and quarrels" she toasted to Shizune already quite tipsy.

"Yeah… to paperwork and quarrels." The medic-nin replied before draining her glass in one draught, causing her opposite to raise an eyebrow in sheer bafflement, what wasn't missed out by Shizune. She knew that this behaviour was highly unusual for her – 'the responsible one', but due to the circumstances, Tsunade's assistance felt it was only appropriate, to let loose, too – especially regarding the fact, that a lot of work was just screaming to be done; so tonight could be considered as the calm before the storm and if that wasn't reason enough for her to get senselessly drunk, than she didn't know what was.

…

…


	13. Insomnia

**13. Insomnia**

Some loud snoring and unintelligible murmuring was disturbing the stillness dominating the only moonlit room. The blonde boy was tossing and turning from one side to the other, tormented by his dreams until, with a loud bang, he fell out of his bed.

"Ouch" he muttered, rubbing his head, before looking around his bedroom in disorientation.

"Right… just dreaming." He mumbled to himself and crawled back into bed, but even after some time of just lying around there, he was unable to fall asleep again. He had way too much things on his mind, the conversation with Sayuri hadn't left him unaffected.

Before and even while talking to her, he didn't even have the slightest doubt in what he'd told her, but now he wasn't so sure about that anymore.

These weren't really thoughts he wanted to think about right now, what he really, really wanted was sleep. Deep, tranquil, dreamless sleep.

Was that asking too much?

He turned to his side and stared out of his window; seeing hardly more than walls, roofs and a bit of the starlit night sky.

It was no use to rack his brain right now, he told himself; the next days would show whether Sasuke was serious or not, but he had apparently convinced Ibiki and that should be reason enough to be optimistic about it, right?

…

…

Buttering her toast absentmindedly, only to decide later on, that she would rather skip breakfast for now, Sakura sat at her kitchen table, unsure what to do with herself.

She wasn't a late riser exactly, but getting up at this time of day was unusual, even for her.

Her shift in the hospital started in just about four hours and she couldn't think of any excuse – other than visiting a certain someone, to go there that early. Well… 5 o'clock in the morning wasn't really the time to visit the sick, either, so even this option failed her; hence she had nothing to do but to walk around aimlessly, in search of a way to occupy herself.

Eventually, she decided to do have breakfast after all and drink some tea to get awake completely – she preferred the caffeine contained in tea over that in coffee; healthier and so on… So after having drunken about a whole pot of strong black tea, the urge to do something (and the urge to visit the bathroom) became even stronger and so she decided on taking a walk, as soon as the sun started rising.

At this time of day, Konoha's streets were literally deserted and the promenade didn't really distract her from the thoughts, she was fighting so hard to block out, but made her focus on them even more.

She was so lost in her thinking, that it took her some time until she noticed that she wasn't walking anymore and when she looked up and realized where she was, her eyes widened in surprise.

…

…

Drops of water splattered the legs of a dark haired girl, as she let her feet dangle in the small pond behind her hut. She had no clue how long she had been sitting there, but since dawn was already breaking, it must have been quite a while.

She liked this place - admittedly it was quite small and remote, but it was enough for her and she cherished the serene aura this place – her home – radiated.

Usually the sight of the small pond and the deep wood behind it were enough to tranquilize her, but today of all days, this effect failed her.

Even though she seemed perfectly calm on the outside, she was caught in an inner turmoil that was slowly eating her up.

She had made her decision: she wouldn't let him get close to her again and yet that was exactly what he did. He was intruding her mind and that was closer than she ever wanted him to be again.

A jaded sigh escaped her parted lips as she slowly lowered her eyes and followed the circles the waves were drawing each time she moved her legs a bit.

…

…

It's been long ago since she had been here the last time.

Back in the past, she used to be here quite often – a lot of memories were connected to this place, which was probably the reason why she had, at all cost, avoided coming here recently.

She looked at the two wooden piles that were placed in the centre of the great meadow that had once been Team 7's training ground.

A tired sigh escaped her lips while she hesitantly stepped towards one of the stems, remembering the time of their first training, when Naruto ended up fastened to it, after they failed getting the bells from their sensei.

A small smile crossed her lips. The good old days… It seemed, as if it was ages ago that they had been Team 7 – the actual Team 7, that is, and now, maybe things were going back to how they used to be back then.

Not exactly how they used to be, though…

She had changed.

A lot.

She wasn't an annoying, weak, love-obsessed little girl anymore – she was a strong and skilled woman. She had trained very hard, so she would finally be able to protect the people she loved. She was sick of being useless and being bound to just watch the others from behind, while they did all the work.

Physically, she was probably one of the strongest people all over Konoha and besides that, she was also one of the best medic-nins there were. She was right about to follow in Tsunade's footsteps and she sure was proud of that.

She really had no reason to be insecure about anything.

So the next time she would meet Sasuke, she wouldn't just stand there, intimidated by his mere presence.

No.

She would show him the person she had become and she would make him like her. She didn't know how yet, but she would do it.

Her inner self applauded at this determination and she smiled at herself. There was no need to be hasty, since he was back now, she had all the time in the world to win him for herself – Shannaro!

…

…

It was already noon now, so the knucklehead ninja was doing what was most appropriate for this time of day – eating. And not just some boring old lunch, but 'rataplan'…

Ramen!!!

After spending about an hour at Ichiraku's – and not just because he had taken such a long time to eat, but because he had spent most of the time in a desperate search for the free-coupons he was sure to have taken with him. However not being able to find them, he had to settle for just one single, tiny bowl of Ramen, since that was about all he could afford after his prior excesses, which had really hit his wallet.

So – still hungry – he strolled through the streets of Konoha, until he saw a familiar figure, walking ahead of him.

"Yo! Kakashi-sensei!"

The grey haired man didn't bother to lift his eyes from his rather worn out looking book and just lifted a hand to greet his former-student.

"Hey, what are you doing?" The blonde boy asked, as he finally caught up with the copycat-ninja.

"On my way to the Hokage." The Jounin replied taciturnly.

"Ahhaa…" Naruto stared knowingly, but still curiously at the older man, but this one didn't feel the need to condescend to any clearer explanation, so Naruto carried on: "It's about you know who, right?"

"Who knows?"

"Well, you and I too…"  
"Is that so?"

"Ah, common Kakashi – don't gimme that, you know as well as I do what this is about, so what exactly does Tsunade-obachan want to talk to you about? Heh?"

"Naruto. If what the Hokage wants to talk to me about was of any concern to you, she would have invited you, too. Don't you think?"

"Noo! Don't be so mean, just tell me!"

"I fear I can't." The Hatake replied lifting his hand again – but this time in parting, before vanishing into thin air.

"Ah – come back, dammit!" Naruto cursed. 'Fine than' he thought to himself 'I guess that means I have to pay a visit to Tsunade personally, we'll see whether I was invited or not – I mean this is about Sasuke, so it's probably more my business, than Tsunade's!' The blonde boy nodded to himself and headed straight towards the Hokage tower, when he – lost in thoughts as he was – ran into someone, causing himself and the other person to fall down.

"Oh man…" he muttered rubbing his head as he looked down at the person that was now buried underneath him.

"N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata stumbled, feeling rather uncomfortable, due to the close physical contact.

"Oy, Hina-chan – gomen nasai, really didn't see you." Naruto apologized, helping the flushing girl to her feet.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't pay attention to where I was going. I-I'm really sorry Naruto-kun."

"Ah don't mind, can't be helped now anyway. So, what are you doing here?"

"M-me?" the blue-haired girl pointed a finger at her chest, rather taken aback that he was interested in anything concerning her person. "Umm… I'm on my way to the maingate; we have a mission you know."

"Ah, I see… then good luck Hinata-chan. I gotta go, too. See ya around!" The blonde-boy waved at the young girl as he already started to run off, towards his destination.

Surprised at this sudden action, Hinata just stumbled a small-voiced goodbye and kept on staring at the slowly fading silhouette, of the boy she cherished so much.

As soon as this one had finally reached the Hokage-tower, he saw Kotetsu and Isumo, carrying piles of documents up to the Hokage's office.

"Hey you guys! What's going on?!" The blonde greeted them cheerfully.

"Hey Naruto-kun" Kotetsu greeted him back, slightly out of breath, "slavery work – just as always. And what are you up to?"

"I want to talk to Granny Tsunade, is she upstairs?"

"That won't work, Naruto-kun. She's very busy today – not receiving anyone, well except for her personal slaves, I guess. Try again tomorrow, or well, just some other time I guess…"

"No way, I need to see her right now."

"Well that's quite impossible." Isumo added to the conversation.

"Why?!"

"Well maybe because there are two ANBUs, blocking the way to her office; there's no way you could get past them."

"What are they doing there?"

"Keeping annoying little boys out, of course."

"BAKA! Who are you calling annoying, heh!" Naruto yelled, surprising Kotetsu who thus ran right into Isumo, causing the pile of papers in his hands to soar down, scattering in all directions.

"NARUTO!!!" They both roared in unison.

"Ups." The chaos ninja replied, before dashing away, averting a cruel untimely death.

…

…

"Achoo" – Another sneeze. Spending most of the night outside hadn't done her any good, as it seemed.

It wasn't exactly cold outside, but not warm either and tangling one's feet in quite chilly water for a few hours wasn't really a clever thing to do…

Getting a cold now wasn't that bad though.

Being a germ sling made her unable to work in the hospital; accordingly she wouldn't be confronted with a certain someone, who happened to be spending his time in there.

The first part of her strategy seemed to be a success. Even though she hadn't really planned on getting sick, just to avoid seeing her former team-mate, she wasn't that much of a masochist and not that desperate too; but now that it had happened she might as well take advantage of it.

"Achoo" – this was seriously getting annoying, even as a medic-nin, she could hardly do more to fight a cold than cooking a good old broth and resting.

She was just wrapping herself up in a warm, cuddly blanket, when she heard someone knock at her door.

"Coming!" she just choked out hoarsely, before opening the door. "Temari-san! What are you doing here?" the young girl looked at her friend from Suna-Gakure in utter surprise.

"Hehe – the Chunin-exams again. Just figured I'd come over here first, before meeting up with Shikamaru. Especially since I'm a little bit too early."

"A little bit?" She enquired, before stepping aside, to let her friend in.

"Yeah like a week or so…."

"What? Why is that?"

"Later…" she waved her hand before taking a close inspection of the girl in front of her. "So?"

"Hn?"

"What has gotten into you? You look like a mess!"

"Feeling like one, as well. Anyway, how are things in Suna going?"

"Everything's fine I guess. We have a new squad of really promising Genin – they are sure to kick ass during the Chunin-exams. Maybe you should start to prepare your Genins mentally for the defeat; it will be a lot easier for them that way." The blonde grinned boastfully.

"Tze. Look who's talking – but it's good to see, that after the beating you Suna-guys took last year, you still haven't lost your sense of humour. Really impressive." The Konoha-nin retorted smirking, before she started sneezing again.

"Touché." Temari lifted her hands in defeat and the two girls grinned at each other.

"Soo… how long are you going to stay in Konoha?"  
"Quite a while I think, I'm not really keen on getting back home at the moment."

"Really – what's the matter?"

"Oh it's actually a rather funny story, you know, but not when you're like involved in it." The blonde sighed exasperatedly. "My brother, the older one I mean, Mr. Attitude himself, has fallen in love, but is just too damn shy to speak to the lucky girl. On the contrary, other boys aren't too intimidated to do so, what is totally freaking him out and this is why, every time Kankuro is at home he's boasting around and acting cocky and whatever… just to compensate for his insecurities, or something… If I had stayed there any longer I'd have probably drowned in testosterone."

Sayuri sniggered at the image that was just forming in front of her inner eye: "You're right – that really doesn't sound like Kankuro at all. You know the girl he likes?"

"As a matter of fact I do and after having endured his mood swings for quite some time, I have offered him to introduce him to her –"

"He has never even talked to her?!"

"No… he's more like a stalker – admiring her from the distance. But anyway; he was acting like a school girl, telling me all flushed that I shouldn't dare talk to her about him and so on."  
"Sounds cute… in a way I guess."

"Well maybe, but not when you're the one whose shoulder he's crying on all the time."  
"Poor Temari…" she patted her friend's shoulder in commitment but wasn't able to suppress a smile.

"Oh cut it off!" Temari exclaimed, throwing a pillow into the other girl's face.

"Ouch alright, alright…" The young girl giggled, what sounded quite weird since her voice was totally hoarse and raspy; and turned into serious mode again.

"How long has he been 'admiring her from the distance' up to now?"

"Oh you wouldn't believe it!"

"Well then tell me already!"

"He's already after her since two entire months. I mean he's a gown up man, that's just…"  
"Ehm… romantic?"

"Tze – I actually thought of something like ridiculous or pathetic."

"Oh c'mon… anyway you are not really in the position to judge him!"

"What?!"

"I mean the thing with you and Shikamaru –"

"- stop it right there!" The blonde girl interrupted her friend and shot a threatening glare into her direction. "There is no such 'thing' going on between Shikamaru and me!" She raised her hands to imitate quotation marks as she repeated the word "thing".

"Tze… and you call your brother ridiculous. At least he admits that he has feelings for this girl..."  
"Well I don't admit anything, because there is nothing to admit."

"Ah… sure. Your brother might be Mr. Attitude, but then you are Mrs. Self-denial" Sayuri declared rolling her eyes at the stubbornness of her friend. "What a lovely couple, it's clear you are relatives…"

"Well whatever." Temari said with a sharp tone in her voice leaving no doubt that she considered the conversation to be over.

"Achoo!" Sayuri sneezed again – she really felt terrible and who was to blame for it? Him again. He wasn't even there and yet he was messing up her life, he really had a talent for this. It was really –

"Sayuri? Reality calling on Sayuri! Hello, hello." The addressed person blinked in confusion.

"Not funny Temari." The violet-haired girl replied sullenly, rolling her eyes again.

"Really? I thought it was." The Suna-nin laughed, nudging her friend, so that she fell back into the pillows of her couch.

"You're in a bad mood, hn?!

"Don't say – what gave me away?" she asked sarcastically.

"Hehe, I just know you. Anyway, I gotta go now. See you around. Sayonara!"

"Where to?"

"Well my hotel of course, gotta check in, so bye!"

"Yeah bye!"

As soon as her visitor had left, she let herself sink down on her couch completely. Just how arduous that girl could be!

Normally it was hard to keep a bad mood in her presence, she was just way too funny, but today, Sayuri was just too miserable, even for her friend to get her out of it. In fact, after this little conversation, Sayuri started to feel the complete extent of her cold – with her luck, it would soon turn into a bad flu, she was pretty sure about that, but it couldn't be helped now anyway. So there was no use to complain – especially since it was her own fault and not really his, like she wanted to convince herself of.

…

…


	14. Conditions

**14. Conditions**

The world outside the window looked exactly like he remembered it. There were families, walking from one shop to another, kids running around noisily without any real purpose and here and there some ninjas in full gear were either heading out to a mission or just coming back from one.

The sun cast a soft shine on the familiar buildings; from his window he had a good view of Konoha's public park, in which he could see some people jogging or just strolling around, passing their time as if there was nothing they had to worry about.

Even after all these years this village didn't seem to have changed at all.

It was as boring as ever.

Up to now, things were working out quite well for him, just as he had assumed them to do.

They would allow him to come back, he was quite sure of that and yet he still felt a little queasy, but that was probably because of his injuries. That just had to be the reason, since he would never admit that an Uchiha could possibly be worried about something or even so much as have a nervous stomach or something like that – impossible; it just had to be the injuries…

However regardless of what was going on inside of him, his face never gave away any of it. During all these years with Orochimaru, he had successfully learned to hide his emotions; in fact, wearing this mask had become a habit, he wasn't really able to turn off just like that. What had earlier been just something like a mask for him, had been able to successfully replace his real face completely, without him even noticing it, since in the life he had led the past years something like feelings had been entirely superfluous. Everything he did was training and sometimes carry out missions for Orochimaru; nothing more than that and just for one single reason – just so that he'd finally be strong enough to kill his brother. Ever since his family had been murdered that has been the one and only thing he was living for and even now he still hadn't been able to accomplish his purpose – it was truly frustrating.

He'd been sitting on his bed, looking out of his window for hours now, not caring about the ANBUs, which had been positioned in his room, to watch over him.

None of the two men had moved even the fragment of an inch, in all this time, until eventually the door flew open and three other ANBUs stepped into the small room, positioning themselves around Sasuke's bed and looking down on him.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you are to follow us without any resistance. Do not make any sudden moves and don't even think of running away – you got that?"

"Hn" the raven-haired boy just replied and got to his feet. The four ANBUs were shielding him the whole way, on the one hand to keep him from running away and on the other hand, to keep anyone from seeing him, till they finally arrived at the Hokage tower, which they entered at once.

They walked down a corridor, until they came to a stop in front of a huge wooden door, which was opened immediately by a guard that was standing right in front of it.

…

…

The noise, which had previously been prevailing in the hall, died out at once, as the small procession made its way towards the small podium that formed the head of the room.

They stopped somewhat at the back of this small stage and now Sasuke had the chance to take a closer look at the other people in the room. Right in front of him was the Hokage – no doubt about that, it's not like she would age physically or something…

Then, in the crowd, he hardly recognized any of the faces. He saw some of his former teachers from the academy but could hardly recall any of their names and then there was also the head of the Hyuga clan, whatever his first name was… He also recognized a rather old dressed up woman for whom they had often done missions, just a short time after they had become Genin – but besides these, he couldn't remember any of the other people. It was like they had been part of a past life that had begun to fade away the second he had turned his back on it. Even though he hadn't forgotten about his past, it still appeared somewhat blurry to him – as if his brain wouldn't consider it important enough to memorize it with all its details, but then he hadn't bothered to think about it much during the last years - he had just been too busy with really important things… And besides he had no time to waste by recalling the past when his future was what really mattered to him, well at least certain parts of his future. It had always been clear to him that he wanted to kill Itachi, but he had never even thought about what would happen afterwards. Maybe because he didn't really expect to live through an encounter with his brother, or more likely because he has spent all his life striving for this one goal and couldn't really imagine what would happen once it was accomplished…

All eyes were fixed on him now, everyone perfectly aware of whom he was, sending him hateful or timid glares, watching his every movement. Some people would have started feeling uncomfortable and nervous in this situation, but not him – actually he couldn't care less.

He was just standing there, opposing their impertinent stares with sheer dullness, making some of the people even angrier than they already were. He also noticed that there were other people as well – people that seemed to look forward to the prospect of having him back; those however were outnumbered by far.

The Fifth stepped forwards to the speaker's desk and the whole room fell quiet at once.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you have been ordered here to confirm in front of this council, that your intentions of coming back to Konoha are genuine."

A mix of annoyed and disbelieving snarls went through the room, followed by at least as many 'Shush's.

"Do you swear to be cooperative and loyal to the village of Konoha, regardless of the circumstances?"

"Hn" He merely nodded his head, earning some upset glares again.

"And are you willing to carry out every mission, no matter how unimportant it might occur to you."  
"Hn."

"Well now that that's settled, we'll talk about the conditions you'll be subject to:

As long as we consider it necessary, there will be guards positioned in front as well as inside the Uchiha-mansion -"

His eyes widened slightly at this point, but he still didn't show any noticeable reactions.

"- and you will allocate your skills to the village, whenever it is demanded of you. Furthermore you will do a one-time payment of 10% of the Uchiha-Clan's fortune. Do you agree to all the points listed beforehand?"

"Hn." He just replied again, this time causing the Hokage to turn around sharply and glower at him. "Do you agree or not, Uchiha?"  
"I do."

"Fine. This is the one and only chance you get Uchiha-san – seize it. So then, are there any objections to his returning?"

It was a rhetorical question of course, since the real voting had already taken place the day before, but Tsunade nevertheless looked around the hall, just to keep the etiquette, before finally announcing: "So then, herewith I declare Uchiha Sasuke to be a full citizen of Konoha again. You may leave now."

Then turning to Sasuke again she muttered. "Come to my office tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, we will then settle the whole affair with your guards. Ah… and Uchiha-san, you will stay in the hospital again this night."

And with these last words she left, followed by her ever-present assistance and her small house-pig.

"You heard what she said, off to the hospital now." One of the ANBUs surrounding him ordered gravely and was actually about to push him forward, but as he caught sight of the Uchiha's glaring eyes, he swallowed hard and figured it'd be better not to do it.

If things would carry on this way, with his own personal watch to follow his every step and so on, Sasuke would probably run berserk, but as Tsunade had said, this 'special treatment' would only last as long as the Hokage considered it to be necessary, so if he, or rather they were lucky, this wouldn't take too long…

…

…


	15. An unexpected turn

**15. An unexpected turn**

It was 8 o'clock Sunday morning. The whole world seemed to be fast asleep, that is everyone but the person hammering violently against Naruto's door.

Still cuddled comfortably in his bed, Naruto let out a sleepy grunt, before pulling a pillow over his ears in a desperate attempt to retreat into the sweet world of sleep again, but the obstinate visitor wouldn't let this happen.

After having knocked at the door for solid five minutes he didn't bother about courtesies anymore and just entered Naruto's apartment, dragging the boy out of the bed by his feet.

"Fine, I'll get up, I'll get up! Man… do you know what time it is?" The blonde boy grumbled, getting to his feet lazily.

"Uzumaki Naruto. You and your team are going to be assigned to a new mission – assemble at the Hokage's office at 9.45."

"What? that's still almost two hours to go – why did you have to wake me up that early already?!" The blonde boy grumbled, but the messenger only grinned and vanished into thin air.

Still a little sullen, the chaos ninja started to have breakfast – instant ramen, same as always – the best way to start a new day! After brooding about some nice insults, he would throw at this guy the next time he would see him, Naruto started to think about the mission.

Why were they being send away on a mission now of all times?

Did he do something to annoy the old hag?

Well, he couldn't think of anything. 'Maybe one of the others did. Yeah, that must be the case…' Naruto brooded while slurping down the rest of his soup.

As soon as he had finished his breakfast he got dressed and decided to do some labs, before going to Tsunade.

'If the others had been woken up by that brazen messenger, as well?'

If that really was the case, then the mood would be slightly petulant today, he guessed. But then again, maybe this guy wasn't as audacious towards the girls, as he had been towards him.

No – wait a second.

He really hoped he was!

He could already see Sakura's response to being dragged out of her bed – most likely that guy wasn't alive anymore. Well… whatever. Tough luck. The blonde grinned sardonically and started to concentrate on his breakfast again.

…

…

As he entered the Hokage tower, he already saw his two team-mates standing in front of Tsunade's office, both looking rather sullen.

"Ohayo" he greeted the two girls who just nodded to him. "So…?" He asked directed at Sakura, rising up on his tip toes and looking at her expectantly.

"What?" she responded uncomprehending.

"Well – did you kill him?"

"Huh?!" her eyes nearly popped out of her head at this ridiculous question. "Baka! What the hell are you talking about?"

"Well the messenger of course!"

"Why would I kill him?!"

"Ah, never mind." He just stated before looking around in search of an occupation, but the pinkette wasn't ready to let go of the conversation yet: "Naruto! Tell me right now what you were talking about!" She growled threateningly, building herself up in front of Naruto, who looked rather uncomfortable at the moment. "Ah, it's nothing, really Sakura-chan, just calm down…" He tried to soothe the Kunoichi, when suddenly the door flew open and, to Naruto's relieve, they were ordered inside, where they were met by no one else but Tsunade herself and their former team mate, which had his back turned to them, like he so often had.

"Sasuke-teme! What are you doing here?" Naruto exclaimed euphorically, but received no response, other than a disparaging "Hmpfh".

"The reason I summoned you here for, is as following. You get a new mission-"

"All of us?!" Naruto shrieked hardly able to suppress his anticipation.

"Naruto, if you'd just let me finish you'd know." Tsunade said strained, trying to remain calm, but the violently throbbing vein at her temple gave her away. "The mission isn't for all of you, however you are all concerned: Naruto, Sayuri and Sakura; the three of you are going to keep Uchiha Sasuke under surveillance -"

"What?!" They all cried out in disbelief, some rather happy, others rather distressed.

"Dammit" The next one to interrupt me again is gonna find himself picking up the garbage in the park for the rest of this month!" Tsunade yelled fiercely. "Is that clear?!"

"Hai!" They all confirmed fairly intimidated.

"All right then. I'll make it short: in order to carry out your mission as best as possible, all of you will move into the Uchiha-mansion."

"WHAT?!" They all howled again, before remembering the threat Tsunade had just put on the table and clasping a hand in front of their mouths, to choke down any other noise that might involuntarily escape them.

"That's not going to happen." Sasuke stated in a calm, yet somewhat menacing voice.

"What is it, Uchiha? – don't tell me you are already going back on your pledges." Tsunade asked, raising an eyebrow provokingly.

"Tze…" He just responded, shooting a deadly glare at the woman in front of him, who couldn't help but to smirk at his predictable reaction.

"Moving in with teme – I can't believe it!" Naruto declared, grinning, patting Sasuke's shoulder, who backed away from the touch straight away and snarled: "Shut it – dobe!"

Sakura didn't know what to think yet; she was so taken aback by the prospect of moving in with her former crush, that she was just standing around open mouthed, unable to say anything.

Sayuri on the other hand, who had been rather quiet the entire time as well, but mainly because she was still feeling wretched, knew exactly what to think about this whole situation: 'Hell No!' There was just no way she would move in with the person she had been planning to avoid – that would just ruin her entire plan. Tsunade couldn't seriously expect them to just give up their own apartments, for the sake of a simple mission.

Pondering over her own thoughts, Sayuri didn't realize that Tsunade had already carried on talking, until she heard her say:

"So that's it then – you'll meet in two hours in front of the Uchiha mansion - that should be time enough for you to pack your things. Ah and one of you will evidently have to share rooms with Sasuke the entire time. Make sure to keep a close watch on him. So then –"

"Wait, you –"

"Sayuri I said no more discussion –"  
"But…"

"No! You'll do just as I say and I don't wanna hear another word about it. Now then you are dismissed. Go!"

Naruto and Sakura agreed cheerfully, while Sasuke and Sayuri left without another word, appearing rather malcontently.

As soon as they had left, Tsunade sighed exhaustedly; this whole Sasuke-thing had demanded a lot of her and the next days, when it would become known that the ex-Nukenin was back in Konoha would be bothersome as well.

Sometimes she really regretted having become Hokage – she had known that it wouldn't be easy, but reality had even surpassed her worst expectations.

Sighing again, she pulled out a new bottle of Sake, not caring that it was still early in the morning; after all the trouble she really deserved some repose, she thought to herself, before draining her glass in one draught.

…

…

A pink-haired Kunoichi darted through her room, throwing everything she could lay hands on into an already cramped suitcase, before trying desperately to get it to shut, by sitting and jumping on its top.

As she had finished, she looked slightly dissatisfied at the now oddly dented trunk – she really needed to go shopping, all these clothes were so… well – inappropriate. She needed something more appealing, something eye-catching, just something better than these clothes, she's already wearing for years – which you could easily tell by looking at them.

She didn't really believe she could get close to Sasuke just like that and that wasn't really the reason why she wanted to renew her wardrobe. She just wanted him to acknowledge that she had changed – that she had become a beautiful intelligent woman and maybe she also wanted to show him what he had missed.

Her primary goal however wasn't to get hooked up with him, even though she sure wouldn't reject him, but what she wanted above everything else was to be friends with him again. Just to be there for him whenever he needed her and making sure that he would have no reason to leave again. Yes – she wanted to build up the bonds again, they had shared before he had joined Orochimaru. She wanted everything to go back to the way it had been, right after they had become Ninjas – just in a more grown-up less annoying and less daft way.

A serene smile crossed her face; after all these years her dearest wish would finally come true and not only that, she had never even so much as dared to think about moving in with Sasuke and now it was actually happening.

Just like that.

Thanks to Tsunade-shishou. Her grin grew even wider at the thought of her supervisor. She really owed her a lot, if it wasn't for her she wouldn't have been able to flourish the way she had done.

Carrying out her enormous suitcase, without any apparent difficulties, she took a halt in front of her apartment and looked at it. She still couldn't believe what was happening, everything was going so fast, it was just like a dream.

She shook her head. No. No dream – it was reality. Sweet reality. She mentally bid farewell to her old apartment and headed out beaming all over the face, towards the Uchiha district – her future home.

…

…

Everything went wrong, all, all wrong.

Arriving home – well at her momentary home, Sayuri went straight to her dog, which was lying curled up in front of the kitchen-counter and stroked him absentmindedly, sinking down to the floor as well.

What had she done to deserve all this? She must have upset some higher beings and was now getting the credit for it. Besides she had to come up with a new plan, since plan number one is fairly impossible to work out now.

Damn… why did everything have to be so difficult? That was just unfair.

She wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her head on top of them. What should she do now? Of course she could just take it as it comes and hope it would turn out well, but then it could also go wrong and she wouldn't have any influence on it, so that was out of question. Even though she actually cherished spontaneity, this sure wasn't the right moment for it.

For the time being she had to settle for just giving him a wide berth, until she could think of something else.

Right now she was feeling way too dizzy to come up with anything viable anyway; her damn cold was demanding a great deal of her, but it couldn't be helped now.

Eventually she got up and rummaged in her closet, until she found an old bag, which she filled with just a few clothes. She was reluctant to pack all her stuff, since she was still trying to deny that she was seriously moving out.

Walking out of the door, she shot a last sad glance at her little tranquillity oasis; she didn't want to leave – this was the place that had become her first home, the first home she could remember that is. She felt fairly queasy, as she took another step away from her dwelling but didn't dare look back again.

She had to be positive about things. It was not like she would live alone with Sasuke – Naruto and Sakura would be there as well – and Scootie, she wouldn't leave him behind; and then Sasuke was probably not keen on spending time with them anyway.

Everything would be just fine.

And with this last thought of encouragement, she walked, still reluctant, towards the Uchiha-mansion – her new home.

…

…

Naruto jumped up and down, all fidgety, inspecting every single corner of his apartment, anxious not to forget anything in the chaos that dominated his flat.

He was already halfway out of the door, when it occurred to him, that the Uchiha-mansion had been abandoned for quite a while – meaning, there wouldn't be anything eatable in it.

Horrified by that thought, he went straight to the supermarket, since he had plenty of time left anyway and headed directly to his favourite section, filling the shopping cart he was pushing with all the instant ramen that would fit in.

He considered that as his good deed for the day – that should free him at least to some degree of the house cleaning, which sure was going to take place later this day.

Ah… he just couldn't wait to meet up with his friends. They would all live together – like in co-tenancy, almost like a real family. It would be awesome! Sasuke would probably act somewhat obnoxious at the beginning, but Naruto was sure that he would be glad about their company, too – he never understood how the Uchiha had been able to live in such a huge house all by himself; it must have been very lonely, but that was over now.

Naruto swirled the bags he was carrying around, a wide grin lightening up his countenance. He just couldn't wait anymore, so he ran the last part of the way, arriving the Uchiha-district almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule. So he found himself – all alone in front of his new home having no idea of how to occupy himself.

Why did he have to hurry so much? He cursed a bit, before he just sat down on the ground and started watching the clouds – just like Shikamaru always did. He didn't even persevere one single minute, until he thought he would die of boredom. What did Shikamaru like about this so much? He just couldn't understand it…

"Now I know what to do!" Naruto said to himself enthusiastically. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" A second Naruto appeared right in front of the real one. They both crouched down, with a fierce look in their eyes and one hand hidden behind their backs. Than the two of them exclaimed: „Rock, paper, scissor!" jerking their hands in front of their bodies, with a stern expression on their faces.

They cursed as they realized that they had both taken rock, so they started a new round but again they came up with the same one. It took them three further attempts, all of which ended up the same way, until they finally realised, that they were probably thinking the same way.

"What are you doing there?" Sakura directed towards the two Narutos with a raised brow.

"Ah, Sakura-chan!" Naruto called out gladly, while his clone dissolved. "Just killing time. How about you? Are you excited?"

"A bid." She just replied – probably the understatement of the day, since she was actually all edgy.

"Really?! I…ehm… – yeah me too. Naruto tried acting cool, until he saw Sayuri arriving and started waving his hands wildly above his head.

"Hey." She just responded drearily, before seating herself on her bag and coughing a little.

Naruto looked at her a little anxious, but than started chatting with Sakura again, until about five minutes later their new housemate, surrounded by a group of ANBUs showed up.

"Sasuke!" Naruto greeted him, louder than necessary since they were standing just a few feet apart.

"We hand him over to you now, take care." One of the ANBUs explained, before they all vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Without even looking at them, the clan-heir approached his old residence, entered it and then closed the door right behind him, making clear that he wasn't keen on their presence at all.

"Man… that's gonna be tough …" Naruto declared soberly before they all turned towards the house, they were without a doubt not welcome in.

…

…


	16. Living together

**16. ****Living together**

Casting an insecure glance at each other, the three shinobi hesitantly decided to follow their new room-mate. As soon as they entered the Uchiha-mansion, they couldn't help but to gape at the sight that was presented to them: Right after the rather modest lobby came a large corridor, which was parting into even more hallways and the whole house was surrounded by a huge porch, from where you had a remarkable view of the fairly feral but still stunning garden.

Naruto and Sakura were so excited, that they spent the rest of their inspection running, calling each other every time they found something interesting, which happened quite often.

Sayuri kept standing on the porch, taking a closer look at the grounds; it was really a beautiful place and had a lot of potential to become her favourite part of the whole house. Her dog, which had never left her side up to now, slowly, almost anxiously stepped into the garden, taking a sniff now and then, before returning to his owner and poking her leg with his nose.

Still lost in thoughts, the young girl started stroking her dog until she heard Naruto, who was apparently back on the first floor, screaming something unintelligible before he, this time clearly, shouted: "Sasukeee! Where the heck are you?"

Hm… if he would just carry on avoiding them, maybe there was no need for her to come up with a new plan. Maybe life didn't suck soo badly after all.

"Teme" he shrieked again before he popped his head through the doorway facing the garden.

"Say-chan? Have you seen Sasuke by any chance?"

"No, not recently."

"This is bad, we are here to keep watch on him and we already lost him after just about 5 minutes - Tsunade-baa-chan's gonna rip off our heads!" He exclaimed more to himself than to the girl, before darting back inside again and resuming his search.

In that very moment a door to her left, at the very end of the porch flew open and the sought-after man approached her, directing a disapproving look at the dog at her feet, before passing her again, as if she wasn't there at all.

As soon as he was out of sight, she patted Scootie's head, shushing him consolingly, as if the Uchiha's glare had really offended him. Then, turning back inside, she called out: "Naruto – I found him!" before being seized by another annoying coughing-fit.

"Really where is he?!" All of a sudden the knucklehead-ninja was right beside her, coming literally out of nowhere. Still coughing, she just pointed in the direction, she had seen the clan-heir vanish to and Naruto didn't waste any time, but ran for it at once.

…

…

"Man… it's really dusty in here…" Sakura soliloquized, blowing over a sideboard, leading to her getting a cloud of dust into the face. "Damn it…" she exclaimed before catching sight of her other female team-mate and calling out: "Hey – Sayuri-san, let's start cleaning up a bit."

"Hmm… okay I guess…" she responded with an obvious lack of enthusiasm in her voice.

"Excellent" Sakura smiled ignoring the lethargic undertone in the other girl's voice. "Well then… let's just split the work – I'll take this floor and you the upper one."

"What about the other ones?"

"What other ones? There are just two floors."

"No, I mean the guys. Shouldn't they do something too?"

"Ah come on! Naruto would probably mess up more than he would clean and I don't think that Sasuke-kun has any interest in doing chores."

"Yeah – whatever." Sayuri sighed resigning, before heading upstairs, doubting that something like emancipation has gotten around here yet.

…

…

After two hours of hard physical labour without any visible progress, Naruto came upstairs with both arms crossed behind his head, obviously bored.

"Hey Sayuri-chan, what are you doing?

"What does it look like?"

"Cleaning?"

"Well spotted." She affirmed, sounding rather peevish.

"At least you have something to do – I've been striding through the entire house, I've searched Sasuke, then I've filled up the supplies, I've found my – or rather Sasuke's bedroom, oh and did you know the Uchiha-mansion has a dojo? It's really awesome, but training alone sucks. How about it, are you coming?"

During his whole enumeration of all the useless things he's already done, a vein at Sayuri's temple had been throbbing violently, but she calmed herself down and merely said: "As you can see I'm busy, but it would take waaay less time if you'd help me. Then we could train as long as you wanted. So – what do you say?"

"Ehm… cleaning and stuff?" he looked at her in disbelief.

"Exactly, the thing Sakura and I have been doing the entire time all alone, so why don't you make yourself useful, too and start cleaning the floor."

"The floor… but Sayuri-chan –"

"- Pleeaassse, Naruto-kun." She pleaded, fluttering her eyelashes and looking at him with puppy dog eyes.  
"Oh – fine, I'll do the floor, but then we'll train okay?"

"Okay!" she smiled and they both carried on with their work until Sakura approached them and looked at the cleaning Naruto in surprise: "Naruto-kun – you are helping, too?"

"Well of course I am! Can't let you girls do everything on your own, right?" He said proudly, while Sayuri just rolled her eyes at his hypocritical behaviour, but smiled nonetheless.

"That's nice of you, really. Ehm, Sayuri-san? We're sharing a room, right?"

"Okay, if you like – but I guess there's no real need for that, I mean this house is huge, so we could take single-rooms as well…"

"Yeah I know, but I guess it'd be better like this – I mean we are more or less just guests after all and so I guess we shouldn't just make ourselves at home too much…" The pinkette said, eyeing the many doors in the hallway.

"Mhm, you're right, so which room then?"

A happy smile grazed Sakura's lips and she stated: "Well I guess it shouldn't be too far away from the boy's room, just in case something happens and Naruto oversleeps it…"  
"Hey!" Naruto protested pouting, but Sakura just ignored him and opened the door right across from Sasuke's room: "How about this one, this should be –" As soon as she had opened the door and peered into the room she stopped at once and closed it again: "Eh…. Maybe not this one – but how about this?" She opened another door and looked into the room with a pleased expression on her face. "This one looks good, what do you think?"

Sayuri got up and went into the room, eyeing it critically: "Looks good to me, but I guess we should ask Sasuke first, just in case this is a room he wouldn't want us to stay in…"

"Well I guess if it was really up to him, we wouldn't stay in any of these rooms…" Naruto threw in, making a face.

"True." Sayuri replied "but what I meant is, maybe that was his brother's room or something – I guess he wouldn't want us to stay in that one…."  
A cold shudder ran down Sakura's spine and she threw an insecure glance over her shoulder: "How weird it is to live in a house with a history like that… do you think… maybe it spooks in here?"

You could see how Naruto stiffened up at once and looked around in paranoia. "What?! You mean we just moved into a haunted house!" He shrieked panicking, but Sayuri hushed him at once: "Seriously you shouldn't talk about something like that… especially not in front of Sasuke, I guess it wouldn't feel good to hear someone talk like that about your deceased family… anyway it sure isn't spooking in here, okay so just cut it out."

"Hmm, you're right." Sakura agreed but Naruto still appeared a little insecure, but didn't want to look like a coward in front of the girls, so he just swallowed hard and agreed too. After all Sasuke has lived in this house for many years and if he'd seen a ghost they'd probably know it. But maybe the ghosts had left him alone since he is an Uchiha, but what if they didn't tolerate any strangers? Luckily he was sharing a room with the clan-heir so he should be on the safe side; the girls were the ones that really had to worry about being haunted…

…

…

Another hour later, they were done – their moods were at rock bottom, they were devastated but went training nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the actual owner of the mansion regarded the things going on in his house gloomily; if they were this hyperactive all day, he'd probably kill them.

He smirked morbidly at this thought – even though he'd been a Nuke-nin and everything, he had made a point of not killing or even harming anyone he didn't know, but if someone really annoyed him, he sometimes made an exception to this rule. However if he wanted to say in Konoha, he had to give up on that completely, even though he kind of regretted that, considering how irritating some people here could be…

He let out an annoyed sigh, as he looked at the half-opened bag, Naruto had carelessly thrown into a corner of the room – his room.

The prospect of having Naruto for a room-mate gave him the chills; he remembered past missions, during which he had had to share a room with Naruto, too. In case his sleeping habits hadn't changed over the years (the sleep-talking, the snoring, the cuddling…) this was going to be nightmarish. He had no idea where exactly Naruto wanted to sleep, but it would neither be in, nor anywhere near his bed – he would take care of that.

The raven-haired boy turned away from the window and sat down on his bed – he had never imagined to end up at this place again – especially not before a certain business had been taken care of. There were just way too many bitter-sweet memories connected to this place, even though the happy ones no matter how numerous they might be, couldn't compete with the darker ones.

Actually it was just one special memory he was hinting at. The day his once beloved brother had killed his entire family - the entire Uchiha-clan except for one single person – him. And the only reason for that was, that back then, Itachi hadn't considered his younger brother worthy enough to be killed – the biggest mistake he had ever made. The young Uchiha had dedicated all his life to one single purpose and that was avenging his clan. He would kill Itachi, no matter how many sacrifices he had to make, even if it meant sacrificing his own life – he didn't care. After all these years of training, he finally felt ready to take on his brother – he was sure, that if he faced him this time he would definitely be able to kill him. No doubt about that, but to be able to do that, he would have to find him first and that turned out to be the hardest part of the whole affair.

"Naruto-kun!" He heard Sakura call, apparently outside, which led him to look out of the window again; it was already dawning, but he still had a perfect view of the entire grounds and so he soon caught side of a pink head, as it seemed still searching for the Chaos-Ninja. He didn't really care about what they were doing, so he turned away from the window and went to his luggage, it was just a small bag, but it still contained everything he needed. He looked to the door just to make sure it was closed; then he pulled out a scroll and used a simple jutsu to open it, before using even more handsigns to evoke the real contents of this scroll.

He had read it numerous times already, but still couldn't make too much sense of it, it was seriously frustrating. He was just about to open another scroll, when he heard a faint knocking on the door.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura shyly popped her head through the now open door and timidly approached the raven-haired boy, who had, unnoticed by the girl, slipped the scroll under the table.

"Ehm… Sasuke-kun, dinner is ready – just Ramen tough, since we don't have anything else, but… ehm… are you coming?"

He looked straight into her eyes, causing her to blush and turn her face down to the floor.

"You haven't eaten anything yet, right – so you must be hungry, hmm? Anyway we are down in the kitchen so in case you -"

"Hn." He just murmured and walked past her.

As soon as he was out of sight, she took a deep breath and started collecting herself; she hated how he could make her loose her poise, but she just couldn't help it.

After a few seconds she finally felt ready to go after him, when she suddenly came to a halt in front of some old pictures, showing a young – smiling Sasuke, together with his family – beaming in a way she had never seen him do before.

A sad smile crossed the young girl's face – they had been a happy family until the day it happened. Now these pictures were nothing more than sad reminders of a better time that was never going to come back again.

She sighed compassionately before she eventually detached her gaze from the pictures and started walking down, towards the kitchen, where she found a completely silent and somewhat tense community – until she stepped inside, at least.

"Sakura-chan! Where have you been?! Your Ramen is all cold!" Naruto shrieked without interrupting his meal.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Baka!" Sakura lectured the Knucklehead-Ninja, before sitting down next to Sayuri who had already finished her serving and was apparently spacing out at the moment.

Naruto, still with his mouth full was already taking his second helping – well more likely the third or fourth though, but Sakura didn't know for sure.

Sasuke was sitting next to him, staring disapprovingly at his food, but eating it anyway. It was just like in the old days, if it wasn't for the overly tense atmosphere.

Finally trying her soup, Sakura realized that it was indeed cold, but she didn't want to get up and warm it up again, she felt way too intimidated by the negative vibrations, dominating the room, so she just ate it quietly, without any complaints and thought about ways of how to ease the tension, eventually deciding to leave it up to Naruto.

However the whole meal was carried on in silence, until some rustling was heard and Sasuke left the room without any other word. Nobody looked up as he left – they were all rather disenchanted with how things were proceeding. When they heard that he had returned, they had all hoped that things would go back to how they used to be. They hadn't been too optimistic though and yet, now that they had the proof, it was kind of painful nonetheless.

They wouldn't give him up though, maybe he just needed some time – they hadn't seen each other for a very long time and the things that had happened between them weren't easy to be overlooked and besides, he had never been much of a social person anyway. Maybe things were going much better than they thought they would – only time could tell and after all, that was something they had plenty of.

…

…


	17. The first mission

**17. The first mission**

Three days had passed already and they still hadn't made much of a progress on the interpersonal level, even though some of the tension, which had been almost palpable at the beginning, had yielded over the time – now you could say, they were more or less just casually avoiding each other, instead of really scheduling to do so… However, since they had now finally settled in the Uchiha-mansion and where no longer dependent on instant-ramen, you could feel the mood rising slightly, day by day.

The four Shinobi were just having breakfast, when a short 'Thump' somewhere outside caught their attention. Naruto got up immediately and walked out of the kitchen, where he found a Kunai with a note wrapped around it, sticking in one of the pillars, which were surrounding the entire porch.

Reading the message, he went back inside and sat back down on his place, well aware of the curious gazes, directed towards him, but planning to keep them on tenterhooks a little longer until he finally declared: "Guys, we have a mission!"

"Really what is it?" Sayuri enquired while helping herself to another cup of coffee.

"I don't know – it just says, that we have an appointment with the Hokage today at 10 o'clock."

"That doesn't necessarily mean we have a mission – maybe she just wants to know how things are going on here." Sakura corrected her team-mate, who was now scratching the back of his head, before admitting: "I haven't really thought of it that way, but I mean, we haven't had any missions for almost two weeks now! The old hag could finally come up with something, if you ask me."

"Well, that's not true; in fact we are on one really big mission, this very moment." Sakura stated, before nervously directing her eyes toward the raven haired boy, hoping that he hadn't taken her words as an insult, but his mind seemed to be at a far away place at the moment, so he probably hadn't even noticed she had said something at all.

"Anyway, what time is it?" Naruto asked into the round, receiving a snippy answer from Sakura.

"Can't you read the clock yet?"

"Well do I look like I have one?"

"Naruto…" she said impatiently, pounding her fingers on the table "It's on the wall right in front of you!"

"Oh… Yes! There it is… hm it's like quarter to nine, so we still have plenty of time left…" You could easily see, that something was dawning on the chaos-ninja – he slowly, almost robot-like turned his head to the side, with an unnatural grin plastered on his face.

"Yo, Sasuke, how about some sparring after breakfast?!"

The clan heir glanced at him, his face showing not even the slightest emotion, before disinterestedly looking back down on his mug of coffee and taking another sip.

"Ah come on Teme! Don't be such a slowpoke!" The blonde boy begged but his pleadings fell on deaf ears. "Anyone else? Oh come on… Help - I'm surrounded by morning grouches!"

Since still no one felt the need to react to Naruto's begging and accusations, the blonde boy left the room, mumbling some curses under his breath, deciding to go training all by himself.

The next who got up was Sayuri, taking her cup of coffee with her while telling the other two that she'd go and walk the dog.

Accordingly, Sakura and Sasuke were now sitting all alone at the kitchen table. As soon as Sakura realized that, she felt the urgent need, to somehow break the silence and involve him into some kind of conversation, no matter of what kind, as long as he would take part in it.

She was thinking very hard about a topic, staring holes into space – in fact, she was so distracted by that task she had put on herself that she didn't even realize that now even the last member of her team had left the kitchen. Not until she had finally decided on asking Sasuke what he thought the meeting later would be about, was it that she grasped, that she was all alone now.

"Damn…" she mumbled, but thought to herself that there was no need to rush things, so she got up as well and went to her room to put on her boots, since she was of course already dressed and ready, so that was like the only thing she could do at the moment to pass the time.

…

…

Somewhat half an hour later Team7 gathered in front of the house and went off to the Hokage tower together. As they walked through the centre of Konoha, many curious as well as disapproving and even frightened stares followed their small group – well in fact they were following just one single person – the Uchiha.

The news of him having returned to Konoha had gone thorough the whole village in almost no time, but since he hasn't been seen anywhere, this news were soon dismissed as simple gossip. However now that he was just casually walking over the market as if nothing had ever happened, some people were quite taken aback and hardly knew how to react, except of just staring.

The raven-haired boy didn't really care about the excessive attention he was getting though, or at least he didn't show it; he hadn't expected them to react any different; they hadn't changed a bit, after all.

As soon as they reached the steps, leading up to Tsunade's office, they heard some shattering followed by a loud distinctive yell, just one single person was able to emit in that volume. They all cringed and Naruto almost lost his balance, as a young boy, who was apparently fleeing from the Godaime, happened to run into him.

"Konohamaru! What the hell are you doing?!" Naruto barked as the said person started adjusting himself.

"Naruto-niichan! Man the old hag has gotten crazy I was just asking her for a better mission and she would go all hysterical and she looked totally creepy, like a dragon or something – you could really tell her real age then and as I've mentioned that to her she seriously threw things after me and –"

"KONOHAMARU!" You heard the infuriated screams of the Fifth again and Konohamaru didn't waste anytime, but ran for it.

Naruto just shook his head, smiling sympathetically – he knew the mood-swings of the Fifth just way too well – he had caused them himself one time or another...

As the group of shinobi finally, after hesitating for some unknown reasons, reached the front door of Tsunade's office, they could still hear her grousing inside, so they still felt quite reluctant to enter and where just standing there in front of the closed door, all with uneasy expressions written across their faces – well, all except for Sasuke who more or less looked the same as always, but despite that didn't think of taking the first step into the lion's den, either.

"If we stand here any longer she'll probably get even angrier, if that's possible at all…." Sayuri muttered, before giving the Knucklehead-Ninja a slight push, leading him to fall headfirst and with waving arms, into the Hokage's office, causing the blonde woman to direct her deadly glare straight towards him, so she hardly noticed that the rest of team 7 had now entered as well.

The first thing they realized, when they stepped into the room, was the chaos that dominated it – then they spotted the Fifth's contorted features that were even worse, than Konohamaru had described them to be.

"Naruto!" she yelled lifting up a heavy book from her desk, she was just about to throw at the blonde boy, when she saw the horrified countenances of the other people that were standing in the back of her office, too.

She dropped the book at once and went from fury- into nice-mode; welcoming them inside with a smiling face and begging them to take a seat (they had no idea where since all seats had somehow vanished, but at least they went a step closer to her).

"Tsunade-shishou? You requested us?" Sakura asked her warily, eyes fixed on the blonde woman that now had her back tuned to them as she looked out of the window.

Sighing, Tsunade turned around again and eyed the four Shinobi standing in front of her thoroughly. "Actually, I had meant to give you a C- or a B-Rank mission –"

"What?!" Naruto interfered "That's a waste of our skills – I want a real mission!" Naruto protested, pretty much the same way that Konohamaru had done before.

You could see the veins on Tsunade's forehead throb perilously, but she nonetheless carried on in an almost dangerously calm voice.

"Naruto, if you would listen to me, you would have realized that I've used the word 'actually' – meaning that there has been a change of plans."

"Oops – ah… okay then."

"So then, there has been an incident, at the border to our ally-country Kusa-Gakure. Some ninjas are terrorizing the border in the name of Konoha-Gakure. They are trying to infiltrate the country at two spots and even though they are outnumbering them, the Kusa-nins still have problems to defend their territories. Since there hasn't been any order given for any such action, Konoha is bound to help their allies and resolve the misunderstanding, in order to maintain the peace, between our two nations. I've already sent two teams of Jounin and Chunin yesterday evening, so you'll mainly act as a back-up squad and as negotiators – try to pacify the Daimyô as best as possible. You can find all the details in this scroll. Are there any questions?"

No objections were uttered, so the Godaime carried on.

"Since it is a 36 hour journey, I guess you should get ready as soon as possible and head out – ah and Sasuke is going to act as your team leader for this mission – no discussion Naruto." She severely looked at the Knucklehead-Ninja, who had already opened his mouth, ready to complain, but all words kept stuck in his throat, since he didn't dare object Tsunade, when she was displaying that horrifying stare.

They all agreed more or less enthusiastic and left the office, to prepare themselves for their first mission as a real team since almost three years.

…

…


	18. Teamwork?

**18. Teamwork?**

It didn't take them long to pack their gear and for Sayuri to bring her dog to the Inuzukas`, so just about 30 minutes later, they were all ready to start their trip to the Village Hidden in the Grass.

As they walked towards the entrance of the village a rather unusual view was presented: Sakura was walking in front of the group, cheerfully leading their way out of the village, then came Sayuri who seemed to be spacing out at the moment, closely followed by Sasuke who didn't really behave any different than normally, however the rear of the small troop was formed by no one else than Naruto, who still seemed to be quite grumpy about the fact that Tsunade hadn't appointed him to be the team-leader for this mission.

As soon as they had left the village they increased their pace and were soon jumping through the treetops at an incredible speed. Naruto who had apparently been seized again by his usual ambition, now made it to the top of their small procession, starting a race between him and his new team-leader. This one however didn't really seem to care about Naruto's plan but nevertheless didn't let the boy take the lead, triggering his ambition to rise even more, until all of a sudden, Sasuke jerked to a sudden stop, causing the blonde boy to bang right into his back. Seeing the out-stretched hand of their team-leader, the two girls came to a halt at once and without hesitation started checking the surrounding area with raised Kunais.

"Teme – that was unfair!" Naruto complained rubbing his forehead until he perceived the concentrated faces of his team-mates.

"We are surrounded" Sasuke stated, not bothering to look around.

"- and outnumbered; there is six of them." Sayuri added in a matter of fact tone.

"Are they enemies?" Sakura asked eyeing the region suspiciously.

"Probably – but they are weak. There's no need to waste our time." Sasuke was just about to go off, when the Chaos-ninja interrupted him.

"What? There are enemies and you just want to go ahead, as if they weren't there?"

The blonde boy had no clue what was going through his friend's mind; he has never been one to back away from confrontations, no matter how futile they might be.

"Hn." He just muttered and took off. The other three looked at each other insecurely, all feeling the same way about their comrade's behaviour as Naruto, but then decided to follow him after all.

…

…

The sky was getting darker and darker, but not because the sun was already setting, but because a storm was apparently emerging. Their team-leader had been right - they really didn't have any time to waste with something that wasn't a concrete part of their mission. So they took on the rest of their trip in silence, when about two hours later, the first raindrops started to fall from the sky and the air was getting noticeably chillier.

They still had a five hour journey ahead of them, when they agreed on taking a short break in a small shrine they could use for shelter. Naruto overcame the temptation, to play with the two bells hanging on a beam, like he had done once, when he was with Jiraiya, but since that hadn't gone too well, he merely concentrated on his meal and still pondered about the weird behaviour of his friend, earlier that day, deciding that it was probably just laziness.

After hardly half an hour of rest they were back in the downpour making their way to Kusa-Gakure faster than predicted, since none of them was really keen on spending any more time than necessary in the rainstorm.

…

…

About four and a half hours later they finally reached the border to the Land of Grass, immediately spotting the 'real' group of Konoha-nins, Tsunade had told them about earlier. They were positioned in front of the enemies, who were hiding themselves between some rocks and trees, while the Kusa-nins were attacking them from the back, so they had them cornered and you should suppose they were having the upper hand in this battle - however if you took a close look at the battlefield you could merely make out corpses of Kusa-nins and not of the attacking Shinobis; and the Konoha-ninjas they had just caught sight of, weren't really numerous, either; there were just two Chunin, sitting behind a rock, one of them obviously wounded and one Jounin who was throwing Kunais from behind a tree-trunk, not looking too fit as well. They approached the two Chunin, not wanting to distract the Jounin from his task and began gathering information about the current situation.

"We are here since nine hours now and we still don't have the slightest clue how many enemies we are facing at all. They are most of the time using Bunshins to attack – I'm pretty sure we haven't been able to harm even one of them."

"Where is the rest of your squad?" Sakura asked, while healing the wounds of the other one.

"We have split up, since those rogue-nins try to intrude the country from two different positions. From here and from the east."

"Hn." Sasuke acknowledged this piece of information, before saying: "Naruto, Sayuri. You go and check on the other position. Sakura and I will take care of things here."

"Hai!" Sakura agreed enthusiastically and started blushing, as she realized that she had over-done it a bit, but then again he had chosen her to stay with him and none of the others – there just had to be some meaning to it…

…

…

As soon as the others were gone, Sasuke activated his Sharingan and scrutinized the area. He briefly closed his eyes, and then entered the fray with a satisfied smirk on his face. As soon as the fiends caught sight of the raven-haired boy's rather bold appearance, he was attacked by Kunais, coming practically from all sides, but since he had his Sharingan he didn't fall for the trick and just concentrated on the real daggers, before completely dissolving the Genjutsu they had used to distract their opponents.

Sakura, who had apparently finished treating the Chunin, now appeared on the battle field, too. She walked a few steps into the direction where the rogue-nins were supposed to be hiding, before concentrating a huge amount of Chakra into her fist and slamming it to the ground, causing the whole earth to break apart, and with that also the hideouts of their fiends.

Those however had been lucky as it seemed, since none of them showed injuries of any kind, but nevertheless they now knew how many enemies they were opposing – just seven – and they had no place to hide this time, or that's what they thought, because soon after their exposure, one of them used a Doton-Jutsu, creating a new shelter for them.

"Pathetic." Sasuke remarked before drawing his Katana and running straight towards them, he didn't use his Chidori since it was still raining a bit and he figured it would probably do more harm than good at this moment.

The two men hiding behind a large boulder could easily see him rushing towards them and already prepared their counterattack, when all of a sudden he vanished and reappeared right behind them, slamming the hilt of his Kusanagi against the backs of their heads, causing them to lose their consciousness, before they even realized what was going on.

'Two out, five more to go' he thought to himself, before looking around for his next victim.

Sakura, who didn't just want to stand around and watch, ran right after him fending off all the Kunais that came flying towards her, when she realized, that one, which had just landed at her feet had an explosive tag tied to it.

"Shit!" she shrieked and tried to leap away from it, but it was already too late and the explosion seized her by the ankle. "Ouch…" she hissed through clenched teeth, before dragging herself out of the way.

…

…

Meanwhile the rest of Team7 had reached their destination, too and started collecting information from the two Konoha-nins they found there. It wasn't really raining anymore, but the persistent thunder drowned away most of the other sounds; therefore they could talk rather unconcernedly.

"Wait a minute…" Naruto frowned while observing the two ninjas sitting in front of him. "Wasn't there supposed to be another Chunin with you?"

The two Jounin looked to the ground, their expressions darkening noticeably. "He fell, so we decided to retreat for a while."

"Oh… I'm sorry." Sayuri muttered sympathetically, not really knowing what to say, but they nevertheless nodded thankfully before carrying on with their report: "There were about seven or eight of them; however we've been able to take three of them out, so there are now either four or five left. They mainly use earth element Jutsus; we could take the one that used water element out. They have used boulders to create some kind of fortress; it gives them an impenetrable defence to assaults from the outside, while they can still attack from the inside."

"That means if we want to attack them, we somehow have to get in there."

"That's right."

"Any suggestions?" Sayuri asked the two Shinobi who already had a better overview of the situation.

"Let's just run in and go for it – it'll work out well, you'll see." Naruto declared his one and only way to take things on.

"They probably haven't noticed us yet, so we should use that to sneak in on them." Sayuri stated, ignoring her team-mate completely.

"Sounds good. They know our position so we'll just attack them from here and you try to get to them from the west."

"Okay." They all agreed and one of the Jounin got up and threw a gas-bomb towards the fiends, directly followed by a bunch of Kunais and Shuriken.

At the same time, Naruto and Sayuri used the smoke to conceal their movements and placed themselves right at the bottom of one of the rocks.

Much to their advantage, the sight still hadn't cleared, so Sayuri closed her eyes and examined the rocks: there was no entrance visible, which meant there was only one way to get in.

"Combine your Kage-Bunshins with your Rasengan and try to brake through all sides simultaneously." She whispered to her team-mate, even though it was hardly necessary, since the thunder and the Kunais with the explosive tags, the Jounins were throwing, were making a lot of noise – they were really taking their task seriously.

A few seconds later however, the noise was drowned by some synchronized screams: "Rasengan!"

The walls of their 'fortress' started to crumble apart and all the Ninjas (meaning Sayuri, the two Jounins and the bunch of Narutos) used the chance for a direct attack, as long as they still had the surprise-effect on their side.

Just about 3 minutes later they were done.

Without their hideout, the rogue-nins could hardly offer resistance and therefore capitulated as soon as they realized the futileness of their situation.

After tying their captives up and fastening chakra-suppressing seals on them, they again reflected about what to do next, while Sayuri treated Naruto who had dislocated his shoulder, while attacking their fiends.

"This is gonna hurt now... look to the left and count to three." The young girl instructed him while rolling up her sleeves. The blonde boy looked fairly horrified, but he nevertheless did as he was told.

"One, two – AHHH!" He screamed as she set his shoulder in one jerk.

"Should be allright now; however you shouldn't put strain on it today."

"Dammit that hurt!" Naruto whined, before the two of them were addressed by one of the Jounin.

"I guess we should take them to the Daimyô and explain the whole situation to them, after all, a part of our mission is also to ensure the maintenance of the alliance between Konoha- and Kusa-Gakure."

"That's right –" one of the Jounin began, before looking towards Naruto in irritation, who was just kicking one of their hostages.

"Hey!" The blonde boy directed towards one of their detainees. "Why are you dressed like Konoha-nins anyway?"

The man just looked away from the group that had now gathered around them, which was pretty hard, since the Kusa-nins that were actually defending the area had come up now, too.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough I guess. Anyway, let's bring them into the village."

The brown-haired Jounin proposed looking around.

"We should split up, in case the rest of our team shows up…" Sayuri stated and stared into the direction they had just come from.

"Fine then, I'll stay here – you're a better speaker anyway, maybe we should go have a look at how things are going on there – they might need some help."

"I doubt it, but better safe than sorry, right?" The young girl said and after that the two groups separated; Naruto's group headed back to the other battle scene and Sayuri's group which included the Kusa-nins went right to the feudal lord.

It had started raining again, while the small procession of various ninjas made their way to the centre of Kusa-Gakure. You could here and there, hear some annoyed cussing but on a whole, the people looked rather relieved, since the threat had finally been removed and they could go back home at last.

The two Konoha-nins were walking a little distant from the rest of the group, observing their surroundings with interest.

"You guys really put us in a bad light." The Jounin directed towards the girl next to him, after having spend the first part of their walk in complete silence.

"What do you mean?" the Kunoichi eyed him curiously, but the man just looked into the air sheepishly.

"Well you see, we've been here for hours, hardly achieving anything and then you two show up and a few minutes later it's all over… really impressive. Ah and by the way my name is Shigeru." He finally looked at her with a grin on his face causing her to smile at him too.

"Nice to meet you, Shigeru-san, I'm Sayuri – Achoo!" she sneezed again and cursed the weather. "Anyway – what about them?" she pointed towards the Kusa-nins that were walking ahead of them.

"What should be with them?"

"I mean, they are like 15 people or something, how come they couldn't do anything about that small group of rogue-nins on their own? And besides I haven't even seen them take part in the battle at all, so…" she said lowering her voice to be sure no one overheard them.

"You know, the Land of Grass has had a lot of trouble lately, their defences are depleted – most of the men in front of us aren't even ninjas. So it's not that surprising they needed help from the outside."

"I see…"

About fifteen minutes later they had reached the feudal lord's residence and were soon invited to enter.

After having told their side of the story – and they already declared their mission as completed since they didn't doubt their team-mates abilities, the Daimyô seemed noticeably relieved, probably since the situation in his country was already rather strained – a war with Konoha would be the last thing they needed at the moment.

About three quarters of an hour later he finally released them with a lot of words of gratitude and promises of recompenses for their accomplishments, offering them to seek shelter in his residence whenever they liked, what they declined with thanks, before they made their way back to the rest of their teams.

…

…


	19. Finished

**19. Finished?**

While one part of Team 7 was already on its way to the feudal lord, to declare the mission as finished, the other part was still in the middle of a hard battle.

After getting her ankle injured by an explosion, the pinkette sought protection behind a fallen tree and started healing her wound. She had been careless and now she had to pay for it. Awesome.

A few seconds later she was more or less done; she still limped a bit, but felt ready to go back into battle again. She looked around carefully, this time, unwilling to repeat her mistake, until she found a chance to attack.

The two Chunins were facing a couple of Rogue-nins, having their back turned to Sakura, so she took out two Kunais and threw them at her enemies, hitting them both at the back of their necks, just as she had intended. However just a second after the impact, the two rogue-nins turned to a pile of earth, crumbling to the ground.

"Tsuchi-Bunshins?!" she shrieked irritated, when suddenly a voice behind her confirmed "Tsuchi Bunshins." One of the ninjas had sneaked up on her and held a Kunai to her gorge, catching the young Kunoichi off guard, but her first shocked face, soon turned into a smiling one, as the man behind her slit her throat.

…

…

This mission was a joke, Sasuke thought to himself; his opponents were hardly offering resistance when he attacked them – he had already taken four of them out without any difficulties and the rest didn't seem to be much more of a challenge either.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw one of them running at him from behind, just about to throw a couple of Shurikens at him, but a short time before they reached him, he jumped up in a half backflip, looking at his attacker, still head over heels, before using his Katon, Hosenka no Jutsu, followed by a Kunai that went right into the man's chest and even though it didn't hit his vital points, he still went to the ground.

'There goes the next' he thought, his face not even showing the slightest hint of regret or any emotion at all, as he started looking for his next victim.

…

…

The rogue-nin's eyes widened in shock, as the girl in front of him – the one he had just stabbed, turned into a log, the very second his dagger pierced her skin.

"Dammit – Kawarimi no Jutsu!"

"Right. Kawarimi no Jutsu." Now Sakura had the table's turned and imitated him, from right behind his back.

The man turned around in shock, but at that very moment Sakura's fist crashed right into his face, going straight through his facial bones – causing the man to die at once, without another sound than the cracking of his bones.

Sakura took a deep breath in and wiped, with a disgusted face, her now bloody fist on the rogue-nin's clothes. She was just about to turn around, when she felt something heavy hit the back of her head and everything around her started to fade away.

…

…

Sasuke turned around, scanning the field for enemies, when he saw one of them kick Sakura straight against her head, causing the girl to go down in an instant.

Another second later that very man had Sasuke's Kusanagi in his chest.

As soon as the man fell to the floor, Sasuke withdrew his Katana and looked at the girl lying in front of him, next to the corpse of another Rogue-nin, wearing a forehead protector with the leave symbol on it, as did all the others, too. He did a last inspection of the battlefield, concluding that they had taken all enemies out, before he picked up his team-mate and walked with her in his arms to the other Konoha-ninjas.

"We're done here." He said bluntly, causing the other shinobi to look up at him in sheer astonishment.

"What?! You just came."

"Hn." He turned away from the three men, just about to go and help the other part of his team out, when he saw Naruto and another ninja come straight towards them.

"Yo, Sasuke – are you done here?" Naruto hollered, before he caught sight of the unconscious girl in his team leader's arms. "Sakura-chan! What happened?"

"She's hurt." He just explained, not going into detail.

"Is it bad?" The chaos-ninja asked with a concerned look on his face, but the raven-haired boy just shrugged his shoulders; his face ever so emotionless as always.

"Hey Isamu-san – where are Shigeru and Keisuke?" One of the Chunin asked the Shinobi that had accompanied Naruto.

A saddened expression crossed his face. Looking down to the ground with his fists clenched, Isamu stumbled: "He… Keisuke… he is dead." He finally finished his sentence, afraid to look at the faces of his team-mates.

"That's not true – he can't!" The boy stuttered, before his voice cracked and he walked away from the small group of people. The other Chunin's face was blank – he apparently hadn't yet realized what he had just heard.

"What about Shigeru?" the other Jounin asked, trying to keep his voice from trembling, but not really succeeding.

"He's okay."

The Jounin sighed relieved and was just about to say something else, but Sasuke was faster. "Where is Sayuri?"

This time Naruto answered: "She's with that other guy, they went to the feudal lord to clear things up - they'll come here as soon as they're done."

"Hn."

"Let's go seek some shelter, I'm already drained." Naruto complained, wringing out his sleeves, which was pretty useless since he was still standing in the rain. His eyes wandered over the field, which was slowly clearing up, since the Kusa-nins were now leaving to bring their captives to the feudal lord and start the interrogations to find out about the reasons for their peculiar disguise.

"I just hope they'll hurry up..." He sighed and shot another anxious gaze at the unconscious girl.

…

…

About an hour later they finally arrived, and told their teams everything about their meeting with the Daimyô.

"That means our mission is over." Shigeru concluded, glancing at Sayuri who was just examining Sakura's injury, while the blonde boy jumped around her agitatedly. "So is she okay?" He asked like every ten seconds until he was finally getting an answer.

"She'll be okay, its nothing serious – just let her rest a little." She calmed the chaos-ninja and sighed in exhaustion, before she took a seat next to her unconscious team-mate.

"You don't look too good, either. Are you okay?" Naruto asked the apparently worn-out girl, the look of concern reappearing on his face.

"I'm fine, Naruto-kun – how's your shoulder doing?"

"It's nothing, don't mind."

"Hmm." She inspected the boy carefully with her eyes, before turning to her other team-mate. "When are we leaving?"

"Now." He merely said and collected his things, casting a meaningful look at his team-mates. "Naruto, you'll carry Sakura."

"He can't." Sayuri interfered "His shoulder is injured, he shouldn't strain himself."

The Uchiha cast a rather angry glare at the girl – he didn't like being opposed, nevertheless he walked towards their little group and picked up the pinkette, taking her piggyback and walking out of the door of the wooden hut they had taken cover in.

Naruto and Sayuri sighed in irritation, before getting up and going after their team-leader, closely followed by the other two teams that had decided on travelling home with them.

…

…

The journey home took them even longer than the one before, since they were taking more breaks, however they didn't reduce their speed, since the bad weather made them want to get home even faster.

They were still about 12 hours away from Konoha, when a pink-haired Kunoichi slowly regained consciousness. Not able to open her eyes yet, she nevertheless tried to orientate herself.

She felt a smooth and wet texture touching her skin and from the wind that blew in her face, she could tell that she was moving. And then there was this smell, a pleasant one – she was sure she had smelled it before, but she just couldn't identify it. Her fingers slightly tightened around the soaked piece of cloth they were grasping and she blinked a few times before she finally opened her eyes and stared at the black hair waving right in front of her face, slightly tickling her soft skin.

"Sa…Sasuke-kun?" she stuttered, feeling the blood rush up into her face.

He didn't bother answering her, but sighed, as he felt her nestling closer against his back.

Sakura didn't care about all this, well she didn't notice it anyway, however at the moment she was in her own personal heaven and with a content sigh, she was afterwards embarrassed about, she took another deep breath of his intoxicating scent.

About an hour later, they came across a small tavern, where they decided to have another break. Naruto went straight to the counter and ordered more food then you would think he was able to eat – but he ate it anyway.

Sayuri sat down on a bench, resting her head on her knees, trying to take a nap, whereas Sasuke set Sakura down in front of a table and ordered some food, as did the other guys, too.

After having eaten everything that he'd been able to pay for, Naruto sat down next to Sayuri, tapped her at her shoulder and passed a cup of tea to her.

"Thanks…" she murmured, looking up at Naruto; taking the cup of tea in one hand and running the other one through her hair, resting it on her neck.

"You really look miserable, you know…"

"Why, thank you prince charming…"

"Ah! NO – that's not what I meant." Naruto defended himself vigorously. "You look good you know…" Naruto twirled his thumbs bashfully, thinking about what to say next, deciding to go with the easiest one. "It's just - you look sick."

"I'm okay, it's just a common cold, nothing special." She reassured him with a forced smile on her face, before cowering down again and taking a sip of her tea.

The blonde boy looked at his friend anxiously, but she didn't return his gaze and so he just leaned himself back and crossed his arms behind his head, letting his eyes wander through the room, until they stopped at a certain pink-haired Kunoichi.

Sakura was obviously feeling better; she was eating some rice, chatting with the waitress and now and then directed a shy glance at their team-leader.

It was just like back then, he reflected, a poignant smile crossing his face - or not? He thought as he watched Sasuke approach Sakura and ask her in his husky voice: "Are you feeling better?"

Totally taken aback, Sakura didn't really think, but answered at once, as if she was afraid he would just turn away again when she wouldn't answer him at once. "Oh I'm, I'm fine Sasuke-kun, really, I was like having –"

"Then you can walk on your own now." Sasuke interrupted her, before he turned around and walked away, which is why he wasn't able to see how Sakura's face started to crumble, her formerly cheerful expression turning into a distraught one.

'It really is like back then…' Naruto pondered until he was interrupted by his team leader's voice.

"We are leaving." Sasuke stated, not putting it up for discussion. However no one felt the need to object anyway, since they had already gotten used to his rather harsh style and so, just a few moments later, they were out in the downpour again.

…

…

"Hey, you don't look too good." Shigeru informed the dark-haired girl, which had been falling behind more and more, the longer their journey took.

With a sneer on her face she looked up and replied: "You're the second to tell me that today – that's really good for my self-confidence, you know?"

The Jounin just grinned, before he lifted up one of her arms to put it over his shoulder, while he laid his other arm around her waist. "I'll help you." He merely stated at her dumbfounded expression and gave her a warm smile.

"Thanks." She just replied, too exhausted to argue - it was far more convenient like this anyway.

About an hour later, he was hardly supporting her anymore, but more or less dragging her with him. He didn't really mind though, since she wasn't exactly heavy and they were nearly back in Konoha anyway.

Sakura's journey back was far less enjoyable. She would have liked to kick herself, for being so stupid as to tell Sasuke she was doing fine.

She could have spent the whole time nestled closely to his back, touching him and inhaling his pleasant smell, but no – she had to walk by herself now, since she was feeling all _too_ well.

She was already feeling terrible for her stupidity and the chance she had missed, but if that wasn't enough, Inner-Sakura reproached her too and visualized what she could have done differently, if she had just taken the time to use her brains.

Sakura sighed, annoyed by herself and fixed her eyes on the back of her team-leader. The Uchiha-symbol was clearly visible, and through his soaked clothes she could see the outlines of his well-defined muscles. She sighed again. 'And they call you a brainiac' she thought to herself - she would have started laughing if it wasn't so sad…

…

…

It was still early in the morning, when the pretty large group of Shinobi reached their home-village. After a short break, they went right to the Hokage to report their arrival and inform her about the mission.

After having finished their explanations, Tsunade wanted to have a talk with Team7 alone, so she dismissed the other ninjas and started: "Your first mission seems to have gone well, so you get another one right today."

"What?!" They all looked at her in sheer disbelieve, waiting for her to burst out laughing, saying something like 'Gotcha!', but she wouldn't.

"It's a simple bodyguard mission; I wouldn't assign it to you, if you hadn't been specifically requested. That person was even ready to pay twice the sum to get you, as well as Inuzuka Kiba to accompany her to Otafuku."

"Huh?" Sakura pondered about a reason, why someone would want them of all people to carry out a mission that badly - and then to Otafuku...

"The person that requested you is, in case you haven't figured it out yourselves yet, Kamiruzu Namida. You've once completed a mission for her, to her full satisfaction, that's why she requested you. That is you – Naruto, Sakura and Sayuri – and Kiba then."

"What – so Teme has the day off while we have to work? That's unfair!" Naruto shrieked, pointing at the Godaime with an upset grimace, plastered all over his face.

"I don't think so. Sayuri-san? – you don't look like you are in any condition to go on a mission – ha that rhymed" Tsunade grinned before continuing. "You will stay here and keep an eye on Sasuke-san. The rest of you – you still have plenty of time to rest. You meet Namida and Kiba at 5 o'clock at the main entrance. Your journey will probably take about 4 or 5 hours and since Namida-san is a generous client, she has even offered to pay an overnight-stay in an inn for you. So this mission shouldn't exhaust you too much. Any questions? No? Then you might go."

The four ninjas were just about to leave the office, when Tsunade stopped them again. "Sasuke-san – since you are the team-leader you'll have to fill the mission report and pass it to Shizune in the course of this week."

The Uchiha merely rolled his eyes in response; first a baby-sitter and now paper work – he already regretted having come back, but it's not like he's had a choice anyway…

…

…


	20. Roommates?

**20. Roommates? **

"I'll go and sleep." Sayuri said, as soon as they entered the Uchiha-mansion.

"Wait, I'll prepare your bed." Naruto told her, taking her bag and throwing it over his shoulder.

"Huh, what are you talking about?"

"Well, since we go on a mission you will have to share rooms with Sasuke for the time being."

"WHAT?!" Sakura shrieked storming out of the kitchen, before Sayuri could even say anything to that matter herself.

"You're kidding right?!"

"No." Naruto stated simply, observing Sakura's shocked expression.

"I sure won't" Sayuri said trying to get a final edge to her fairly weak voice, but Naruto didn't seem to care and just carried her bag to Sasuke's room.

"You don't have a choice – it's still a mission." He uttered, seeming rather amused, what he didn't even bother to hide.

"Naruto –"she exclaimed, not sounding as determined as she would have liked to – probably because her voice was quite hoarse and she could hardly do more than croak. "Give me my things back."

She went after him, finding him already preparing a futon on the ground, just about a meter away from Sasuke's bed.

"There you go Sayuri-chan." Naruto grinned at the baffled girl, picking her up with no visible effort and placing her on the provisional bed, not minding her protests.

"Just lie down and be quiet – you really need some sleep and Teme is not that bad of a room-mate, really." Naruto encouraged her, but the girl just looked up at him sulkily, realizing that her objections fell on deaf ears; so she just turned her back on the blonde boy and pouted like a small child.

"Good-night!" The chaos ninja grinned amusedly and decided to take a nap before his next mission too.

'Damn this sucks' Sayuri thought, cuddling up under her blanket. However she was so exhausted that she didn't really have enough energy to fuss about her situation and about five minutes later she was already sound asleep.

Sakura on the other hand had more than enough energy left to get steamed up about the topic: First she had screwed up things with Sasuke, when she finally had the chance to be close to him and now Sayuri got to share a room with him – how unfair was that?

She had actually intended to sleep as well, but right now she was too agitated to shut off her mind. With a last sigh she gave up on trying and just thought of something she could do to occupy herself.

…

…

"Damn it. Why couldn't Tsunade pass the mission to someone else? It's a C-rank mission at most; so it shouldn't matter too much whether that woman was paying twice the sum or not." Naruto complained as he and Sakura walked towards their meeting point, where Kiba was already expecting them.

"Hoi! Naruto-kun, Sakura-san." Kiba greeted them and Akamaru barked salutatory.

"Where's Sayuri? Wasn't she supposed to come as well?"

"Yeah, but she's pretty much out of it, so she's staying at home." Naruto informed him crossing his arms behind his neck and closing his eyes.

"And that home is…" Kiba didn't finish his sentence but waited for one of the other two to complete it.

"Well the Uchiha-mansion, of course." Naruto stated as if there wasn't anything more natural than this.

"So it's true – it's really true?!" Kiba started excitedly. "I've heard the rumours, but I didn't really believe them. I mean he wouldn't come back as we were trying to get him, why should he come back now, you see. But hey why did he come back anyway?!"

"Well, I don't know – it's his home after all, so why shouldn't he?" Naruto countered, before he caught sight of an old, tarted up woman, with a tiny agonized looking dog pinched between her padded arms.

"Ah – now I remember her; that old hag – I wonder why she wanted us to do a mission for her again! Last time we screwed up pretty bad, didn't we?"

Pondering about a reason, a sudden idea struck Naruto and he turned with paranoid looking features to the pinkette next to him. "Yo Sakura-chan, you don't think she just wants to get us to some desolate place and whack us, right?"

"Oh shut it baka!" Sakura whispered and poked the blonde in the ribs, since the old lady was already in ear shot and forced herself to greet her with a cheerful face. "Good evening, Kamiruzu-sama."

The old woman just nodded at them and asked with her nose high in the air: "Can we go now?"

"Hai." they all agreed: the mood rather sunken – it was really unfathomable why she had requested them in particular – she didn't seem to be any fonder of them than she had been before, so maybe there really was more to Naruto's idea than they had assumed...

They spend their journey in absolute silence, which was only interrupted by some snippy comments of that old woman and the constant barking of her tiny mutt that seemed to be picking on Akamaru.

During one of their numerous breaks, which took place like every thirty minutes, there was some rustling in the bushes beside them, so the three Shinobi and one of the dogs went into a fighting position, shielding their client from all sides.

After a minute of complete stillness, they were just about to relax, when a small stone flew right at them.

Akamaru jumped up and caught it with his snout and the Shinobi started throwing Kunais and Shuriken into the direction the attack had just come from, when they heard a pained screech.

"Ah – no don't!" they heard a rather young-sounding voice shriek and looked at each other in confusion, not knowing what to do next.

Eventually Naruto stepped out of their defence-circle and approached the bushes, only to find a group of young boys hiding in them.

"What are you doing here and why did you attack us?" Naruto demanded to know, finally lowering his kunai.

"Well why did you attack us?" One of them challenged him cockily.

"Wh-what are you talking about – you attacked us first!" Naruto barked at him enraged.

"But just because you were threatening us."

"Threatening you? We didn't do a thing!"

"Pah – you're a liar! All of you had your weapons drawn and were threatening us."

"Whom are you calling a liar you stupid brat!

"Stupid brat?! I'll show you who's a stupid brat, baka!"

"Don't call me baka, teme!"

"So?! Whatcha gonna do about it?"

"I'll…I'll…"

Sakura and Kiba rolled their eyes in annoyance about that verbal battle Naruto was just having with an at most ten year old boy.

"Looks like Naruto found his master – that brat sure makes him look bad." Kiba commented and Akamaru nodded in agreement.

"WHAT?!" Naruto shrieked disgruntled. "I'm not loosing to that filthy brat, I –"

He just started, but was interrupted by the sudden laughing fit of their client. The old woman was laughing so hard, her whole body was shaking and from the squeals of her dog, you could guess he was close to being crushed by her massive arms.

The eyes of the three shinobi and the kids went to the old lady; they were so taken aback by that nearly abnormal sight, that they were utterly speechless.

"Haha – finally some action! This is hilarious!" She choked out between her laughing fits. "I know I did good to hire you – you're just way too comical!"

Now the three shinobi were quite offended – being considered as 'comical' wasn't really something you liked to hear - seriously.

So after Namida had calmed down a bit again, they carried on walking, but while now the ice on her side seemed to have broken, it couldn't be any thicker on the side of her guards. Consequently they again spent their whole journey in silence, until they brought her home and went to their hotel, which turned out to be less luxurious, than they had hoped it to be…

…

…

It was already nine o'clock, when Sasuke finally finished his training – the last mission hadn't really been able to exhaust him and so he figured he could just add some exercises as well.

He couldn't afford just sitting around and doing nothing – he still had an ambition, just because he had returned to Konoha didn't mean he had forgotten about his brother. He went to the kitchen and searched for something to eat, finding some rice left from the dinner Sakura had prepared earlier.

After having eaten in complete silence – well there wasn't really one to talk with anyway and even if, he probably wouldn't have done it, he went to the bathroom and took a cold shower – there wasn't really a special reason for this, like inurement or something, he just didn't mind, so whatever.

When he was done, he went into his room and looked at the frail figure of the kind of agonized seeming girl, that was sleeping curled up on a thin futon on the floor.

'Tze – great babysitter' he thought to himself, before walking through the room and putting away his weapons, deciding that some of them could need some maintenance and polishing.

After he was done, he pulled out some scrolls, he had pinched from Orochimaru, but since they contained information about his clan, he felt they belonged to him anyway and started perusing them, completely loosing his sense of time during his occupation.

…

…

Sayuri awoke from a terrible nightmare, breathing heavily and feeling like she hadn't slept at all. She tried to remember what it had been about, but the harder she tried, the more it seemed to slip away from her, causing an irritated frown to form on her face.

The jaded girl rose up a little and put a hand on her sweaty forehead before running it through her hair, resting it on her neck to cool it down a little.

As soon as her eyes had adjusted a bit to the darkness, she scanned the room and was terrified by the sight of a gloomy silhouette right in front of the window, until she remembered that she was in Sasuke's room and that it was probably just him.

She sank back into her pillows, unable to support herself any longer, as she heard him raise his voice.

"You talk in your sleep." The Uchiha stated dryly, not bothering to turn around to her.

"Huh? What did I say?" she uttered weakly, her voice hardly louder than a whisper, but he heard her anyway. He shifted his weight from one leg to the other, taking some time to answer her.

"'Stop'… that's all" he said, still looking out of the window, but his eyes didn't seem to take in anything, since he appeared to be somewhat lost in thoughts.

She wanted to ask him something further, but she felt her strength fade away again and just a few seconds later, she drifted back into the world of sleep.

The clan-heir eyed the trembling, panting girl cautiously. It was quite obvious that she had a temperature; her chest was heaving up and down rapidly and she was whimpering miserably.

With an annoyed sigh Sasuke went out of the room, only to come back just a moment later. He laid the damp cloth he had just fetched on the girl's forehead and placed a glass of water next to her head. Then he looked at her again, his coal eyes still seeming to be completely blank.

After he had made sure that the girl really was fast asleep and not going to die any time soon, since that would put a really bad light on him, because he was the only one who was supposed to be with her in this house, he turned again to the window and opened it, then, with one last glance back, he jumped out of it and became one with the complete darkness that was covering Konoha, just like every night.

…

….


	21. Women

**21. Women…**

It was a rather mild day for early autumn and the sun was bathing the deserted streets of the still sleepy Konoha in a soft orange light. Everything would have been perfectly peaceful, if it wasn't for the two arguing Shinobi that didn't really seem to fit into that harmonious scene.

"Stop pushing me." The brown haired boy looked at the blonde girl, tugging him along with her, in annoyance.

It was such a drag.

He had just been about to linger around somewhere, when she came up to him fussing around like a furious chicken, asking him – no ordering him to come with her. He had tried to explain that he didn't really want to, but she just hadn't cared and now he was here.

"How about moving your feet a little, instead of just complaining about me dragging you?" Ino grumbled grimacing, but her face soon lit up, as she caught sight of another blonde girl she hadn't seen for quite a while.

"Hey, Temari-san!" she called out waving her arms in delight.

The Suna-nin turned around and was first shocked at the sight of Shikamaru and Ino holding hands, but she soon got hold of herself again and greeted them back politely, trying to behave as casual as possible.

"So you two… what are you doing here so early in the morning? Not really your time of day Shikamaru, hn?" she teased the brown haired boy who looked up at her with an annoyed expression.

"Well, it's not thaaat early and it's not like I'm here voluntary – Ino forced me."

"What?! – I didn't force you, I asked you - and being the nice and decent guy you are, you decided on not letting me go to the Uchiha-mansion on my own, right Shika?" She threw a bitter-sweet smile at him, making sure his answer was just the one she wanted to hear.

"If you say so…" he mumbled rolling his eyes, causing Temari to smile in relief.

"I see – so what are you doing in the Uchiha-mansion, anyway, Ino-san?"

"Oh haven't you heard?" Ino asked while a bright grin appeared on her face – her gossip-radar had just started to strike out. "Rumours have it – well actually it's proven already, but anyway; Sasuke-kun has returned to Konoha and at the moment his old team is living with him in the Uchiha-mansion. That's why we're heading there, because Tsunade is concerned about Sayuri's health and since Sakura is on a mission at the moment, she asked me to look after her. But I didn't really want to go there alone – would be kind of weird, I guess… and so I asked Shikamaru to come with me." Ino took a deep breath after having rattled through her whole speech in just a few seconds – she was just always so excited when gossiping, she could hardly hold back…

After a moment or two, Temari seemed to have finally grasped the contents of Ino's words and asked concernedly: "Sayuri is sick and alone with the Uchiha?"

"Seems so…" Ino affirmed, "That's why we should hurry now."

"Mind if I come with you?"

"Of course not – the more the merrier, right Shika-san?"

The Chunin whose mind had wandered to some far away place, as soon as Ino had started to talk, looked up in puzzlement at the mentioning of his name. "Huh?"

"Nara did you listen to me at all?!" Ino barked at him, the veins on her forehead throbbing violently - ready to explode.

"Of course, yeah you're right Ino." The brown haired boy speculated and the soothing of Ino's features confirmed that his guess had been right, so he breathed out in relief of having averted an impending disaster and they finally started moving again.

On their way to their destination, they chatted a lot about the oncoming Chunin-exams and even though that topic mainly concerned Shikamaru and Temari and you should guess that they would have the most to say to it, Ino was the one leading and dominating the conversation.

…

…

As they finally reached the place at which their sick friend was supposed to be, they kept standing in front of the closed door for quite a while, no one daring to knock.

"You go first." Ino turned to Shikamaru and pushed him to the front.

"Why me?"

"Well maybe because you're the only guy here, so how about standing your ground and acting manly for a change?"

'Women…' he thought rolling his eyes – it was such a drag, no matter what you do, in the end it's not good enough anyway. He sighed in annoyance and finally knocked at the door.

The three Ninjas stared at it expectantly, holding their breath in anticipation, everything was so quiet, you could have heard a feather drop, but nothing happened.

After a few minutes of waiting, Ino grew impatient, so she pushed Shikamaru back and was now right in front of the door.

"You're good for nothing – can't even knock a door properly." Ino grumbled at Shikamaru and knocked at the door hardly, feeling slightly uneasy that there had been no reaction yet, neither by Sasuke nor by Sayuri, but then about a few moments later, the door was finally opened a crack.

"Hn?" The man, who answered the door, was left completely in shadows, giving him a gloomy and kind of dangerous air, making the three shinobi swallow hard.

"S-Sasuke-kun." Ino stumbled, smiling sheepishly, before letting her eyes wander over his half-hidden silhouette, to make out if it was really him and whether he had changed or not.

The Uchiha merely glared at them, since they were just standing there, staring at him, but not doing anything, until Shikamaru poked Ino in the rips, waking her from her temporary trance.

"Ah right, um Sasuke-kun we are supposed to look after Sayuri, is she here?"

"Hn." He merely stated, scrutinizing them again, before turning back inside and leaving the door slightly ajar behind him.

"Seems like he is still the arrogant bastard he used to be…" Shikamaru mumbled under his breath as soon as the Uchiha was gone, earning him gestures of approval from the girls to his side. After exchanging a short glance, the three Shinobi nodded at each other and decided to go after Sasuke, at last.

When they entered the corridor, they could scarcely see him vanish in one of the numerous rooms, belonging to this large hallway, so they went after him.

As soon as they had entered the room, they could see the trembling, heavily breathing girl, who was apparently asleep and the Uchiha, leaning at a wall on the opposite side of the room, who had his eyes fixed firmly on his team mate and didn't even so much as look up as they entered the room.

'Man he sure hasn't changed, he was and still is an asshole… but a hot one', Ino thought to herself blushing slightly before she turned to the girl on the floor, a worried expression rising on her face.

"This doesn't look good" she stated and started a brief examination.

"What is it?" Temari asked her in concern, seating herself next to Ino.

"She has a high temperature – and her breathing doesn't sound well, too." Ino mused before she stroked the cheek of the whimpering girl and tried to wake her up gently, but without any success.

"Help me lift her up and hold her in a sitting position." The medic-nin directed at Temari before turning to the two male-beings in the room.

"Everyone with a penis, please turn around or leave the room." She ordered, causing the two men to frown simultaneously at her choice of words.

Shikamaru obeyed at once, he left the room and took a seat in the corridor in front of it. Sasuke however didn't even move so much as the fragment of an inch and still had his eyes rested on the sick girl.

"No penis?" Ino asked with a leer appearing on her face, sizing the Uchiha up.

"Tze." The clan-heir grunted before he turned around and directed his gaze out of the window like he so often did.

"Allright." Ino grinned at Temari who couldn't help but to smirk as well.

"Lift up her shirt." The Iryonin demanded and rested her head on the girl's heart, checking her heartbeat for irregularities, before walking around her to auscultate her back too.

"Her lung is congested with phlegm…" she stated, before forming a few finger-signs and resting her now green glowing hands on the girl's chest.

"Sasuke-kun, do you know anything about the course of her disease?"

"Like what?" The raven haired man said after a moment of silence – the first real words this day, Ino thought to herself, before answering his question.

"Like did it spread gradually or rapidly?"

"…gradually." He merely stated not going into details, causing Ino to roll her eyes in annoyance.

"Soo… how did it start?"

He sighed irritated; he didn't really like wasting so much time on answering their stupid questions. "Don't know."

The blonde girl was quite furious about his attitude, but she figured that asking him wouldn't bring them any further, so she just let it be, deciding that the information she had already gained, would be enough for an accurate analysis, so she checked Sayuri's pharynx again, before finally making her diagnosis, with a serious look on her face.

"She has an acute bronchitis – it must have started with a cold, that got worse over the time and then her bronchial mucosa inflamed, leading to the fever. I'll perform a jutsu to reduce the phlegm and lower the fever a bit – that's all I can do for her at the moment. She'll have to take antibiotics, but then she should be fine soon."

Ino sighed before performing the Jutsus she had spoken of before.

As soon as she was done, she turned to Sasuke and explained: "Sasuke-kun? Since you are the only one here, you have to take care that she takes her medicine three times a day. Can you do that? At least until the others come back?"

"Hn." He just stated, still not turning around.

"I take that as a yes. I'll come around later and drop off the medicine. That's about it then – let's go Temari."

The Suna-nin, who had all the time been holding her friend absentmindedly, flinched as she heard her name and let down the girl in her arms. She stroked a last time across her forehead, before she got up and walked out of the room with Ino, meeting up with Shikamaru, who sat rested against the wall, apparently asleep.

With a malicious sneer on her face Ino poked the boy with her foot, causing him to start up in surprise.

"Huh?!" He snorted, looking at the two girls.

"We're leaving." Temari grinned at his befuddled facial expression.

…

…

"So, how is she doing?" Shikamaru enquired as soon as they were outside again.

"Pretty bad, but she'll make it." Ino replied with a concerned expression. "I'll go and get her some medicine from the hospital; she should be fine then in about four days or something."

"That's good…" Shikamaru said, as he walked through the streets with his arms crossed behind his head, observing the clouds as was his habit, until he was again interrupted in his thinking by some fingers, being waved in front of his face.

"Spacing out again?" Temari asked him with an impish grin on her face.

"Huh?" He merely stumbled flabbergasted.

"I asked you twice already when we meet to start the preparations for the Chunin exams?"

"Ah… I don't care – whenever you like." He said indifferently, not seeing the girl next to him frown, due to his I-don't-give-a-damn--attitude.

"Fine then" she replied with a diabolical sneer, "Then I suggest we meet tomorrow 6.00 a.m. in front of my hotel. Okay?"

"What? No!"

"But you said whenever I like." She reminded him, her grin growing wider each passing second and no matter how much he was begging, she wouldn't grant him that favour and stayed obstinately to her words; reminding the Nara of how annoying disgruntled women could be.

…

…


	22. Progress

**22. Progress**

A pink-haired Kunoichi was sitting lazily in the kitchen, waiting for the water she had set on the hearth to start boiling, so she could finally prepare dinner for her three housemates.

The two boys were busy training at the moment - after Naruto had bugged Sasuke for almost the entire day, he had finally given in and now they were on their old training field, fighting against each other in an I'm-not-going-to-kill-you-way, like they used to do, back in the old days.

A small smile grazed Sakura's lips - things were really improving lately; after they had gotten back from their mission he had been kind of more open towards them – well at least compared to how he used to be. He even now and then exchanged some words with them, even though just on rare occasions, but at least it was something.

There was just one tiny little thing that bothered her: after they got back from their mission to Otafuku, they had found out that Sayuri was still doing pretty bad, but as they then wanted to move her back to her own room, Sasuke had objected.

He said that he rather shared his room with an unconscious girl, than with a hyperactive sleep-talking ninja and since she was still in quite a bad condition, they hadn't wanted to move her too much anyway, so they had let her stay there. However meanwhile she was slowly getting better and she wasn't asleep that often any longer, too; she still was hardly able to leave her bed though, but the unconsciousness-tour sure didn't work anymore.

She understood just too well, why Sasuke didn't want to share his room with Naruto – he was snoring like a grown-up grizzly, but still it was just not right that he was sleeping in a room together with a girl – a girl that was not her.

She didn't like this whole thing at all and besides, Sayuri didn't have a reason for wanting to stay in a room with him. She didn't have the snoring-excuse – Sakura was pretty sure she wasn't making any noises while asleep. So in case she wouldn't move out of his room within the next couple of days that might mean that there was something going on between the two of them…

Sakura shook her head in denial. There was no way this could possibly be the case. Sasuke just wasn't the kind of guy to get close to a girl in such a short time… And Sayuri, well unfortunately she was quite pretty, but she just wasn't into Sasuke, Sakura was sure of that, besides she had felt something going on between her and that Jounin they had met on their mission in Kusa-Gakure and then there was also Neji who had even come to visit her, as soon as he had heard that she wasn't doing well.

There sure was nothing between her and Sasuke, Sakura tried to becalm herself and decided to look after the girl, she had just been thinking about, after she had put the rice for their dinner into the now boiling water.

As she entered the room, Sakura looked down at the fragile figure of the sick girl and put a hand on her still hot forehead. The fever hadn't entirely faded yet, so Sakura exchanged the damp cloth on the girl's head and used another jutsu to help lowering her temperature, waking the girl while doing so.

"Sakura." She muttered weakly, looking up at the medic-nin, but that one just hushed her and passed Sayuri her medicine. She had been overreacting before – her team-mate really was nowhere near being healthy yet, so it was not that peculiar that she still hadn't moved back into her old room.

"I'll have dinner ready in about 30 minutes. You think you'll be able to eat something?"

The addressed girl just nodded slightly in reply, before she sank back into her pillows again.

"The jutsu I used and the medicine should help you in no time, you'll soon feel better… You know what? Sasuke and Naruto are training together, isn't that great?"

Sakura informed her ill team-mate, who was staring at her through half-closed lids.

"Mhm…" She replied before closing her eyes completely, leading the pinkette to sigh in concern.

She looked at the girl in front of her for a second and then got up to carry on preparing dinner, thinking about how ridiculous her former accusations had been.

…

…

Just as she was almost done with preparing their meal, Sakura heard how the front door was being opened and poked her head out of the doorway, to observe the entrance of her two team-mates.

The two boys both looked rather worn out, however Sasuke was a bit more successful in concealing it than Naruto was: The blonde boy almost dragged himself through the door, his clothes all dirty and torn and his face covered with a lot of scratches and cuts. Sasuke was fairly injured as well, however his clothes were pretty much still intact and he managed to stride through the door with his head held high, even though you could clearly see the word '_exhaustion'_ written all over his features.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto greeted the girl in front of him breathlessly, as soon as he caught sight of her.

"Hey guys, you were really going at it, huh?" Sakura asked her two team-mates and just as expected, Naruto was the one to react to her statement.

"Sure, finally some real training… but what's smelling so good…? You're cooking something, right? I'm really starving – I hope you made a looottttt…"

"We'll see about that – however I still need some time, so how about you just go and take a shower – you really stink." Sakura waved her hand in front of her nose to emphasize that point but the blonde just shot a disbelieving glance at her.

"Stink?! What you're smelling is the absolutely masculine scent of hard physical labour and-"

"Whatever." She interrupted his speech. "Just go and take a shower already, I don't want to eat next to someone who smells like you – even if it is the smell of 'hard physical labour' Naruto." She cut him off as she realized that he was just about to correct her again.

The blonde boy dropped his head in defeat and went into the direction the raven-haired boy had vanished to, before they had started their discussion, while Sakura just shook her head with a grin on her face and went back into the kitchen.

…

…

After having taken a shower himself, even though without being ordered to, Sasuke entered his room and searched for a fresh shirt, not bothering about the girl that was just stretching herself a bit, after having been asleep for the last several hours and neither did she bother about the presence of her room-mate. Sharing a room with him wasn't much different from having a room for one's self; he was mainly ignoring her and she was ignoring him – just as she had hoped it would be (even though a tiny part of her was also sad about it).

"Dinner is ready!" They both looked up, as they heard Sakura's voice coming from the kitchen. Sayuri was just trying to get up, with some obvious difficulties though, when she was surprised by a hand that had just appeared right in front of her face. Visibly puzzled, she looked at the Uchiha, who was evidently just offering to help her get up, before she hesitantly took his hand and thanked him meekly.

"Whatever…" He muttered rolling his eyes and pulled her up, but as soon as she was standing, he let go of her again and marched past her into the kitchen. Her eyes trailed his back until he was out of sight; mere puzzlement still the most evident emotion you could read in them.

Eventually she started moving towards the kitchen as well, still somewhat unstable and shaky, but as soon as she reached the corridor, Naruto was there to support her for the rest of the way, what in his case didn't surprise her at all, since that was just the way he was – a nice, helpful guy.

During their meal, Naruto spent most of the time boasting about how he had beaten Sasuke and what super cool techniques he had used and so on... He was even so busy talking that he almost forgot to eat in between, what was highly unusual for him, since he didn't really mind speaking with a full mouth, even if that meant, no one was able to understand him.

Sakura had listened to him carefully, for the first few minutes at least, because then it became clear that most of his story was told rather one-sided and judging from the state he had been in when he got back and in comparison to Sasuke's, you could tell that his version was a little bit unrealistic and exaggerated.

Not even Sasuke, who was actually an active – or in Naruto's version rather a passive part of the story, bothered to point out the few little flaws in Naruto's report.

So everyone, except Naruto, ate more or less in silence or just stared at his plate, which would in this case be Sayuri, since she still wasn't able to eat much due to her condition and Sakura who had already finished her first plate and was just pondering whether she should take a second helping or not, eventually deciding against it.

Things had really gotten better between them, if you thought back to the first days, when the atmosphere had been so tense that no one had dared to talk and compared it to the scene now, with them all sitting together and chatting carelessly – just like real friends – and that after hardly more than a week of living together; if things would carry on improving at such a speed, they'd soon be on better terms with each other than they had ever been… Being with Orochimaru must have been really horrible… Sakura couldn't think of any other reason that might have changed him so much and even made him come back. She had often tried to imagine how it was like to live with Orochimaru, what he was doing all day and so on, but she had never been able to come up with something reasonable – she knew that he'd been training a lot, but he can't have trained the entire time – impossible. She had actually wanted to ask him about the time he had been gone, but she had feared his reaction – since he'd returned they hadn't exchanged a single word about Orochimaru, or about the events in the past and she didn't really know how to start with it. She didn't want to destroy that little bond they had just been able to build up again, so she just carried on picking at her empty plate and decided to keep her thoughts to herself.

…

…

It was late at night, when another horrible nightmare awoke Sayuri, but the harder she tried to remember what it had been about, the more it drifted away from her and as soon as she had opened her eyes, it was completely gone.

Heavily breathing she rose up a little and tried to soothe herself. Supporting herself on her elbows, she let her eyes wander through the totally black room, feeling that something was different about it, but unable to put a finger on it. She just had this queer premonition that something was not right in here.

She pondered a little about her foreboding, telling herself that it was probably related to her nightmare, but no matter how much she reassured herself that there was probably nothing genuine about it, she just wasn't able to shake off that uneasy feeling.

So as soon as her eyes had gotten used to the darkness a little, she started inspecting the room; she let her eyes roam over the small desk, the wardrobe, the windowsill with the picture of the old Team7 on it and eventually Sasuke's bed, but found nothing out of the ordinary about any of these things.

With a tired sigh, she decided that she was probably just paranoid and was just about to lie back down, when she sheepishly returned her eyes to Sasuke's bed and looked at it for quite some time, especially at the disarranged blanket, which lay perfectly still on the mattress, until she was finally convinced that his bed was empty.

Actually she wanted to get up and check on it, since she didn't really trust her eyes and her over-exhausted brain, but she was just way too tired and too weak to get up, so she at least decided to observe it for a while and look for some movement that would give away whether there was a person underneath it or not and to listen for some breathing sounds.

However not even ten minutes after she had started her little espionage, her eyes fell shut already and she slowly drifted back into the land of sleep.

…

…


	23. Confusion

**23. Confusion**

"Sayuri-san?" the violet-haired girl was gently woken up the next morning. Her eyes fluttered open dazedly and she shot a confused glance at the pink-haired Kunoichi bending over her.

"Time for your medicine." She explained with a bland smile on her face, passing the girl a glass of water and her pills, which were received gratefully.

"That late already?" Sayuri mumbled drowsy, straightening herself to take her tablets.

"It's already two o'clock, so how are you feeling today?" Sakura shot a concerned glance at the, even for her standards, very pale girl.

"Still tired but I'm feeling better…" she said, forcing herself to a reassuring smile, which was reciprocated by her team-mate at once.

"That's good, because you have some visitors." Sakura pointed towards the doorway through which the two Hyugas were just entering.  
"Hello Sayuri-san." The two cousins said in unison and leisurely seated themselves on the floor next to Sayuri's futon.

"Hi…" the girl greeted them, a little surprised about the spontaneous visitors.

"I've brought you an ointment; it will help lowering your temperature." Hinata murmured, and passed her the small pot with the salve, receiving a grateful smile from the presentee.

The blue-haired girl then looked expectantly at her cousin who was sitting next to her and raised an eyebrow, before slightly poking him in his side.

"Umm… Naruto said you liked chocolate, so… here." Neji mumbled with a strained expression on his face and passed the gift to the girl in front of him.

"Thank you." She replied with a gentle voice and smiled at the two people in front of her. "That's really nice of you, thanks."

"You're welcome. So are you feeling any better?" Hinata observed her still sick looking friend with a worried expression on her pretty face.

"Yes, I'm getting better day by day."

"That's good, really, we were already worried –" she started, but was interrupted when the door suddenly opened and a raven-haired man entered the room; his first slightly confused expression soon turned into a deadly glare when he exclaimed with as much disdain as his voice could possibly feature: "Hyuga".

He was obviously referring to Neji, not even acknowledging the fact that Hinata was a member of the rivalling clan, too.

Since he had missed the last time the Hyugas had visited, he was rather perplexed at finding them here. "What are you doing in my house – and in my room?"

Neji's eyes widened slightly, as he heard that Sayuri was obviously sleeping in the same room as the Uchiha, but before he could say anything he heard Sayuri raise her voice.

"They are visiting me." The girl explained, slightly alarmed by the palpably tense and hostile atmosphere that had started to dominate the room.

"Tze." He merely hissed, clearly not pleased with his team-mates choice of friends.

Without saying another word he went to his dresser and picked up his training clothes. Then he left the room without even so much as deigning to look at the two Hyugas again, pretending they weren't even there at all.

"He sure is in a bad mood, did something happen?" Hinata asked innocently, but received only raised eyebrows and dumbfounded looks as reply.

"Hey, Neji, Hinata-chan!" Naruto suddenly appeared in the doorway, causing the unsuspecting Hinata to blush deeply.

"Oi Hinata-chan, are you ill too?" The blonde boy asked as he noticed the unnatural colour of the blue haired girl's face, still not realizing that she always reacted that way when she saw him.

"N-no, I'm okay, thank you Naruto-kun…" she stuttered politely, looking down to her knees while doing so.

The knucklehead ninja frowned slightly because of her behaviour, but then just shrugged and seated himself to the small group of people.

"So what are you doing?" He asked, looking from one face to the other, until Sayuri eventually answered.

"They've come to visit me, isn't that nice of them?"

"Yes, it sure is." The blonde boy nodded, leading Hinata to smile sheepishly, when he suddenly remembered something. "Ah, Neji – I've heard your last mission was pretty much of a flop."

"Uhm… where did you get that from…"

The blonde boy looked at the Hyuga with a diabolical grin. "Well… I have my sources, so what was it about the apes?"

"Apes?"

Now all eyes were turned to Neji in curiosity and even though he had actually not meant to tell anyone about that fiasco, he admitted defeat and started his report:

"Well… we have been assigned to do an A-rank mission for a rather rich village near the Land of Tea. Actually we were supposed to clear a famous temple of intruders, however these intruders turned out to be a horde of bold monkeys that were molesting the tourists - it took us nearly an entire week to get rid of all the apes, since Guy-sensei insisted on not doing harm to any of them, even though they obviously had no regrets in harming us…"

"You got beaten up by some primates?" Sayuri asked amusedly, while Naruto wasn't able to say anything since he had a rather hard time to keep himself from bursting out laughing.

"No, we weren't beaten up by those monkeys." Neji hastily defended himself. "They just didn't make it easy for us, that's all…" He grumbled, turning away from his friends, which were obviously all holding back their laughter, but the sight of his sulky face was just too much for them and so a few seconds later, the whole room was filled with laughter.

"Oh come on Neji, stop pouting!" Sayuri teased her friend, whose lips had up to then formed a straight line, but then he started grinning himself.

They sat around there for quite a while, just talking and laughing and were eventually joined by Sakura as well - the only one missing now was Sasuke, but there was just no way that he would condescend to spending his precious time with someone of the Hyuga-Clan.

However the visit of her friends – and maybe also the medicine, proved to be very beneficial for the ill girl, she was already feeling much better – there was probably more to the saying 'laughter is the best medicine' than you should think.

The Hyugas stayed till late in the afternoon, until they had to leave for one of the monthly meetings held by the Hokage, which was actually just visited by the heads of the clans, however since Hyuga Hiashi was not available at the moment, Neji, even though he was just a branch member, had been asked to replace him.

Sasuke was invited to the meeting as well, which meant that he, whether he liked it or not, had to spend some time with the Hyuga – well and also with other people he wasn't overly fond of, too.

…

…

It was already nine o'clock, when Sayuri, after having eaten dinner, was on her way back to her room. Naruto was somewhere outside, Sakura had to help out in the hospital and Sasuke still hadn't returned from the council meeting; until now at least, since in that very second the door opened and the clan heir entered, walking towards the violet-haired girl, who was leaning at a wall with her head turned to the Uchiha.

She had thought a lot about what had happened that night or if anything had happened at all, unsure whether she should confront the clan-heir with it or not; but since they were alone in the house, she figured she might as well do it, so as he was just on a height with her, she finally muttered: " Sasuke-kun?"

The dark-haired boy stopped in his tracks but didn't look at her, however she regarded this action as a sign of his attention and started: "Uhm… where have you been tonight?"

She wasn't entirely sure, but she thought she had seen him flinch a little, however as he turned around to her, his face was perfectly composed, just as usually and he merely stated: "In my bed of course."

"But I woke up and you weren't there…" she uttered uncertainly, staring down at the floor, since she wasn't able to meet his piercing gaze.

"And where should I have been then?"

The girl forced herself to look up at him again, finding him glaring at her threateningly, so she swallowed hard before finally responding: "That's what I asked you, you-"

"Sayuri" he interrupted, enclosing her by putting one of his arms against the wall right next to her head. This action caused her to shrink slightly, so that he looked even more menacing as he towered over her. "Don't bother me with your stupid nightmares." He glowered at her, as Sakura suddenly entered the house and came to an abrupt halt; startled by the sight that met her eyes.

As they both looked at her, clearly surprised, as if she had caught them by something private, she lowered her eyes dolefully and went into the next room without saying anything and a tense silence filled the corridor again.

As soon as she was out of sight, Sasuke turned back to the girl that was still confined by his arm. Meeting her insecure and almost timid gaze, he dropped his arm and went away, but then came to a stop again and looked over his shoulder.

"You're obviously feeling better; there is no need for you to stay in my room any longer." He said dryly and walked away.

As soon as he was out of sight, Sayuri sighed and dropped down to her knees.

He sure knew how to be intimidating; you had to hand that to him…

…

…

After the short encounter with her two team-mates in the corridor, Sakura had scurried off into the adjacent living room, they were hardly ever using, since they were most of the time either in their rooms or the kitchen, to get away from that awkward situation as fast as she could.

So she had been right all along. There really was something going on between the two of them. That was the real reason why he had wanted her to stay in his room, so they could be together and do – Sakura refused to even think about the things they might have spend their nights with.

She just couldn't believe it. After all she had done for Sayuri, to help her get better and after she had worried about her so much, she was just 'stealing' the man she herself had feelings for and didn't even have the decency to tell her about it.

Hot tears started to fill Sakura's emerald eyes and no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't keep them from running down her cheeks.

It wasn't like she was in love with Sasuke any longer, she had long ago given up on him, she just wanted him as a friend, nothing more – but then why did it hurt so much to see him with another girl?

How come she was feeling, like someone had just flung a dagger straight through her heart?

Why was she feeling the same way she had, when he had left them to join Orochimaru?

Why was she, after all the times she had told herself that he meant nothing to her, still loving him?

A desperate sob escaped her throat, so she pressed her fist against her mouth to stop further sobs from emerging and sank down to her knees.

She had always been there for him, she had even offered to give up her life here in Konoha and go with him, but he had refused her and for what – or better for whom?

Her fist was barely able to choke the next pitiful moan she let out.

For her.

The girl that had pretended to be her friend.

The girl that had solaced her after he had left.

The girl that hadn't even wanted to be there, when he had woken up from his coma.

Why on earth did he prefer Sayuri over her?

Sakura crouched together, buried her head on her knees and wrapped her arms tightly around them.

Why didn't he want her?

Why had he never wanted her?

There were so many questions she just couldn't find answers to.

So many questions she didn't even want answers to.

When he'd come back she had wanted to be close to him, but she had accepted that he didn't feel the same way for her as she did for him – that was something she could have lived with, because up to now, she had thought that he was incapable of leading any kind of intimate relationship; incapable of feelings, other than hate in general.

Now she knew that he wasn't and actually that didn't really change anything, since either way her feelings for him weren't reciprocated, but still it was just so damn painful to know that this wasn't due to his inability to feel, but because of the fact that she just wasn't the right one for him. It somehow felt as if it was her fault – he didn't want her because she just couldn't be what he needed…

She felt entirely helpless.

She was just sitting there on the floor with a tear stained face, but unable to cry anymore, her red and empty eyes staring at nothing specifically.

Eventually her stiff neck brought her back into reality so she reluctantly stood up and wiped her eyes reflexively, even though they were already painfully dry.

Then she listened to the silence for a while, to make sure that she wouldn't come across anyone on her way out and went back into her own room.

Fortunately Naruto wasn't there yet, so she wasn't forced to answer any awkward questions. She just laid down on her bed and pulled the covers close over her head, trying to empty her mind from all unpleasant thoughts so she'd be able to fall asleep at once, but without any success.

…

…

Sayuri didn't really want to encounter Sasuke too soon again, so she didn't directly go to 'his' room, but went onto the porch and sat there stroking her dog, recalling the events that had just happened moments ago.

She went through the questions she had asked him and his reactions to them, which were kind of suspicious, or at least they would have been for any other person; with him that was a special case…

On the one hand, you could say that he had behaved exceedingly aggressive to these simple questions, which might mean there really was something true about her suspicions, but then again anger was the only emotion he had ever been good at expressing and maybe he had just been annoyed by her accusations, because let's assume she hadn't bothered to confront him with them, but had gone straight to the Hokage, he would be in some really big trouble now.

She sighed again and struggled to her feet, still with some difficulties.

Right after taking her medicine she was feeling more or less okay, but over the time that effect faded and at the moment she was feeling pretty miserable again, what might also be connected to the fact that she hadn't slept too much today, because of all the visitors and so on and then the thing with Sasuke had kind of battered her too…

She drew a deep breath in and tried to relax; there was no use, she would have to observe him a bit more carefully in the future, but now that he wanted her to move out, it would be pretty difficult for sure…

Still lost in thoughts, she went back into her room, dropping her eyes as soon as she caught sight of Sasuke who was silently sitting on his bed.

She walked unsteadily to one side of the room and started collecting her things, but was soon interrupted by her room-mates deep husky voice.

"What are you doing?" He demanded, earning an incredulous look from the young girl.

"You wanted me to move out, remember?"

His eyes wandered over her crouched figure, making her feel somewhat uncomfortable, but he didn't respond to her question. She shuddered slightly and then raised an eyebrow, this time meeting his gaze until he finally replied.

"There's no need to hurry…" And with these words he just laid down on his bed and turned his back on her.

The dark-haired girl sat on the floor for a while, quite taken aback, pondering about what to do next, until she eventually decided that Naruto and Sakura were most likely asleep already and that she could still move out tomorrow.

She placed her things on the floor again and crawled under her covers, wrapping them tightly around her tiny body.

What was with his sudden change of mind?

He had been pretty clear, when he had told her to move out and now he just acted it down as if nothing had happened.

Pretty suspicious again.

Perhaps he had just realized that he had overdone it a bit and regretted having been so harsh to her. He was pretty quick tempered and so maybe he hadn't really meant what he had said and this had just been his way of apologizing to her.

Or – more likely – he had just realized that his reaction before had been kind of queer and keeping in mind that she had already been suspicious before, he had to assume that she now saw her assumptions as confirmed.

That would certainly explain his contrariness, but still she couldn't tell for sure - he was just too hard to read – and she hated it.

This time she wanted to stay alert and keep watch on his nightly activities, but his soft, rhythmic breathing was just so soothing and she was fairly exhausted anyway, so she really had to put up a fight to stay awake, but after almost two hours, she couldn't help it anymore and fell asleep at last, without noticing anything out of the ordinary.

…

…


	24. Jealousy

**24. Jealousy**

The next day was kind of weird.

Actually it started pretty well: Naruto was at the top of his spirits, well nothing extraordinary yet; Sayuri was feeling way better and even her appetite had recovered again and Sasuke was in a – for his standards – talkative mood.

Well so much to the good start of the day, however as soon as Sakura entered the kitchen, which also served them as a dining room, the general mood took a turn for the worse.

Her team-mates had already wondered where she had been, since she was usually the first one to get up and when she finally showed up with a face as long as a fiddle, many curious and to some extend even worried expressions were turned towards her.

"Sakura-chan, are you okay?" Naruto asked her with a concerned face, but the pinkette merely nodded with an entirely blank face and then, instead of taking her usual seat next to Sayuri, she went to sit besides Naruto, which was as far away from her other two team-mates as it could possibly be.

The violet-haired girl looked at her with a raised eyebrow and so did Naruto, but none of them said a thing and just watched her in silence.

Sakura, who was pretty much conscious of that fact, clenched her fists tightly, until her knuckles turned white and you could clearly see a vein throbbing at her temple. Then, when it had finally gone too far for her, she banged her mug of tea back on the table, causing it to spill over and almost exploded: "WHAT!?"

Shocked by her sudden outburst, which made the pinkette totally look like a second Tsunade, everyone in the room cringed and Naruto, who was already quite familiar with the mood the Haruno was just in and therefore knew that it was nothing to mess with, tried to sooth her a little, while the others thought it was better to shut up about it. Naruto wasn't really successful however; Sakura's whole body was still stiff and she looked as if she had just bitten into a lemon, but at least she was quiet for now and acted as if nothing had happened.

"Sakura-san, can you pass me the coffeepot, please?" Sayuri asked her grumpy friend reluctantly, but found no way around it.

"Tze – get it yourself you back-stabbing leech!" The pinkette spat out furiously, causing everyone to gasp in shock.

"Sakura-chan, wh-" Naruto started, but was interrupted as Sakura, who was still glaring at her female team-mate, lifted her hand, motioning him to shut up.

"Excuse me?" Sayuri finally said, after she had been able to recover from that verbal punch a little.

"Excuse me?!" she aped her, in an almost shrieking tone. "Stop acting dumb! You know exactly what's going on!"  
"Huh?" Sayuri looked at the pink-haired Kunoichi with a somewhat clueless, but also slightly troubled expression, causing the girl to shoot up from her seat and slam her fist on the table in irritation, which, due to her inhuman strength, broke down immediately.

Sasuke followed the whole spectacle with an emotionless face, while Sayuri merely gaped at Sakura with an open mouth, too shocked to say anything yet. Naruto was the only one who reacted. As soon as the table had gone into pieces, he had jumped up from his seat and positioned himself in front of Sakura, blocking her view of the other girl and tried to calm her down.

"Shut up!" Sakura exhaled noisily, the anger still clearly audible in her shaky voice. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, then pushed Naruto away and strutted out of the kitchen, leaving her stunned housemates and a lot of chaos behind.

"What the hell was that all about?!" Naruto exclaimed, clearly directed at Sayuri, who just shrugged, still looking fairly shocked.

"I mean she wouldn't just loose her temper for nothing… so what did you do?"

"I have no idea, seriously." Sayuri defended herself helplessly, while brooding over what might have caused Sakura's sudden outburst.

"I've hardly seen her yesterday – only when Neji and Hinata were there… You were there too – did I say anything that offended her?"

"Not that I knew… hmm, let's see; maybe she is mad because you ate up all the chocolate…" Naruto pondered as he sat back down on his seat again, not minding the chaos surrounding him.

"That's ridiculous – that's something I would get mad about, but Sakura? No way!"

"Hmm… yeah, I guess you're right, but what could it be then?"

Sayuri again went through her whole day, not finding anything, until her encounter with Sasuke made her come to a halt.

She had been so agitated by that incident, that she had completely forgotten that Sakura had seen them. But still that wouldn't explain a thing. Was she still so lovey-dovey for Sasuke, that seeing him threatening her was reason enough for her to get mad at her, too - just because he obviously was?

Sayuri soon dismissed that idea - it was just way too ridiculous, but what could it be then?

She sighed in defiance and shook her head. "I really have no clue what has gotten into her…"

"Hn." The Uchiha exhaled meaningfully, as if he would know something, so all heads turned to him, but he just stood up and left the kitchen.

"Why the hell is everyone acting so mysterious today? Did I miss something?" Naruto uttered in annoyance, on the one hand because of the way everybody was behaving today and on the other hand because he had obviously been left out of something – and he didn't like _that_ at all.

Sayuri looked down on the table with a sad expression on her face. She sighed afflicted and started cleaning up the mess. "I guess that means I'll have to postpone moving out of Sasuke's room, unless I wanna die a painful death, that is..."

Naruto grinned at that remark, before asking her curiously. "So what's wrong with living with Teme? Why do you want to move out of his room all of a sudden?"

"Well mainly because he wants me to - although he said there was no need to hurry, but still… - well I guess he'll just have to deal with me a little longer, whether he likes it or not. Or I could ask him if he wants to share a room with Sakura – I bet she wouldn't mind."

"Yeah she sure wouldn't – that means we'd be roommates." Naruto stated excitedly.

"Yes-" she grinned: "-but do you think Sakura would be able to cope with living together with Sasuke?"

"Yeah… he often runs around shirtless… I guess that's more than Sakura could bear."

They both giggled at that comment and imagined Sakura's reaction to the situation mentioned afore, which included nose-bleeding, unconsciousness and a blissful smile on the girl's face.

"I guess that wouldn't do her any good…" Naruto smirked, helping the girl next to him to her feet.

"Yeah, probably…" Sayuri's first cheerful expression turned into a sad one again, as she recalled Sakura's words.

"Hey –" Naruto patted her back encouragingly. "It'll be fine, you'll see. She probably just got up on the wrong side of the bed."

"Yeah… probably…" Sayuri affirmed rather wary, she knew Sakura; and she knew that she was quick tempered, but still that was mainly expressed through physical violence and not through verbal attacks.

This whole thing was just so unlike Sakura, that there really had to be something serious to it, she just didn't know what it was yet, but she hoped it would clear up soon.

…

…

The next days didn't bring clarity to the situation, either.

They weren't all that spectacular and violent any more, though some insults were uttered and a few deadly glares were shot once in a while.

On a whole, Sakura went out of everyone's way; she even avoided Naruto to some extend – well as much as you could avoid a room-mate, since Sayuri hadn't dared asking her to move back into her former room.

It was pretty obvious that she just needed some alone time – the only exception to that rule was Ino.

Ino showed up more and more often and even she had kind of started to distance herself from Sayuri, making the girl search even more desperately for something she had done that might have caused their reactions.

The mood in the house was rather tense once again; everyone was watching his words and actions and the times they spend together were far less cheerful and rarer than they had used to be at the beginning.

They hadn't received any missions lately, even though their vacation had already expired by three days. However Sakura and Sayuri were using the time to help out in the hospital again, while Naruto and Sasuke where spending most of their time with training, sometimes even together, even though the Uchiha clearly preferred training alone.

Sayuri still hadn't found the courage to confront Sakura openly, even though she had started some vein attempts that were all doomed to fail, since the pinkette just ignored them and walked away on her or something.

So the situation was fairly glacial among the two girls and it kind of radiated on the people surrounding them, too, causing an ubiquitous tense atmosphere that was able to wear everyone down.

One day however, when the two Kunoichis were again working in the Konoha hospital, Sakura started mumbling some hushed accusations in front of a patient, which means that she undermined her colleague's abilities, and after that, Sayuri finally had enough.

She ordered her team-mate out of the room and finally found the guts to confront her. Sayuri's initial intimidation had made way for pure frustration towards her comrade's childish behaviour and so she finally asked her: "Sakura – what the hell is your problem?"

"Tze, don't give me that Sayuri, you can't possibly be stupid enough not to know that!" She replied snappishly with her arms crossed in front of her chest, while she stared through narrowed eyes at her former room-mate.

"Well I apparently am, so how about explaining it slowly and clearly for the stupid ones of us?"

"You really have no clue?!" Sakura asked disbelievingly and started seizing the girl in front of her up, with an angry glare plastered all over her face.

"Sakura, why would I keep on bugging you if I had?"

The pinkette looked towards the ceiling, trying to collect herself – she just couldn't believe how Sayuri could be that perfidious and insensitive - after all the times she had come to her and cried on her shoulder about the guy she'd been in love with and she just claimed she wouldn't know why the fact that she obviously had a relationship with that very person offended her.

A disturbing sneer crossed Sakura's features and she looked down at the girl in front of her with so much hate in her eyes that Sayuri really had to swallow hard.

"You really wanna know what you did?!" A high pitched laugh escaped Sakura's throat and her eyes were filled with tears, but she finally shrieked; "You fake bitch have something going on with Sasuke! Did you really think I wouldn't find out?!"

The violet-haired girl looked at the pinkette in shock, needing some time to grasp the meaning of her words, until you could literally see it dawning on her: "W-wait a second! – Where the hell did you get that from?"

Sayuri gazed at her totally flabbergasted, but still somewhat relieved, what Sakura couldn't understand at all, so she replied, still louder than actually appropriate for a hospital and not minding the 'shush's' she was getting from other nurses: "There is no point in denying it, you hypocrite – I've seen it with my own eyes!"

"Impossible – there is nothing you could possibly –"

"Stop lying goddammit!" Sakura interrupted her furiously, suppressing the urge to punch the other girl straight in the face.

"Sakura-san, I'm not lying… tell me what you saw and I'll explain." Sayuri, offered in a calm voice, trying to soothe her team-mate a little.

"Well then try to explain, him standing in front of you as if he was just about to friggin kiss you - and why are you still sharing a room with him, even though you are perfectly healthy again, huh?!" The pinkette demanded to know, still with a high pitched voice and tears streaming down her cheeks leaving red marks on her porcelain skin.

"That's easy – it's a misunderstanding –"

"A MISUNDERSTANDING?! How stupid do you think I am?!" Sakura shrieked, rolling her eyes melodramatically, so she was now gazing at the ceiling.

"Sakura please let me finish. What you've seen was not Sasuke trying to kiss me, but Sasuke telling me to move out of his room –"

"Yeah sure! And that's why you're still living with him – what did you do to convince him that sharing a room with you might be quite pleasant after all, huh?! Tell me Sayuri?!" The pink-haired Kunoichi almost spat out. The hint in her statement was hard to overhear and caused her team-mate to look up at her with a pained expression on her face, obviously hurt by the Haruno's words.

"I didn't do a thing! I wanted to move out the next day, but since you went all ballistic during breakfast, I couldn't even talk to you about it…"

"What?" Sakura asked, now finally with a comparably calm voice, as she stared at the girl in front of her with widened eyes.

"That's how it is – I'm not as much of a slut as you might think I am!" Sayuri choked out, before she turned around and stormed out of the hallway, no longer able to hold back tears of her own.

…

…


	25. Guilty Conscience

**25. Guilty Conscience **

Wow. That was unexpected.

When she had seen them, everything had been so clear to her - everything going on lately had started to make sense… that's why she hadn't even wasted a thought to having misinterpreted things – how very wrong she had been.

If she now thought back to the situation she had caught them in, she finally realized that Sayuri really had looked rather intimidated. In the last couple of days, this scene had involuntarily invaded her head for numerous times, but every time it had looked totally different to her, than it had actually been: she had seen him, lingering over her with an eager smirk on his face, while she looked up at him through half-closed eyes, and pushed her body closer to his, trying to seduce him.

How much her own version just differed from what had actually happened… and it had taken her until now, to finally realize the mistake she had made… She had behaved like a goddamn fury the last couple of days even though nothing had happened at all.

She sighed, occupied with her thoughts – on one side she was seriously relieved, that things were the way they are, but then she was also deeply embarrassed about her behaviour and ashamed that she had been able to get so worked up about that whole thing, that she had even mistaken her distorted imagination for reality.

Unforgivable.

She really had to apologize for her behaviour and not only to Sayuri, but also to Sasuke and Naruto, since they had gotten their share of her bad-mood as well…

But how should she apologize to them, without even telling them the reason for it…

She sure didn't want to tell Sasuke, that she had behaved like a complete bitch lately, because she had thought he had cheated on her, since in her mind, they were having something like a close connection you could even refer to as a relationship and talking to other girls was definitely a breach of trust…

Like hell she would say any such thing to him!

And then she had literally accused Sayuri of being a whore and had even broadcasted that story to Ino, which means the entire village should know about it by now … and then she had also smashed a table…

A desperate sound escaped her throat – she just hoped the earth would swallow her up right now, but she knew that there was no way she would get away that easily – It was simply exasperating.

While she was standing there in the rather deserted corridor, she hadn't noticed, that a black-haired boy was watching her, unsure whether he should approach her or not, eventually choosing the first option. He looked down at the flower bouquet in his arms - he had actually wanted to visit someone else, but he figured that there was no need to hurry, since that person had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days anyway. So, to encourage himself, he took a deep breath in and walked, beaming with pride, to the pinkette standing at a wall, just about five metres away from him.

"Good afternoon, Sakura-san." He greeted her politely and bowed down slightly.

"Oh… Lee-kun…" Sakura replied in a still rather choked voice.

"Sakura-san, what…" Lee started – it was just then, that he noticed the girl's tear stained face and the desperate look in her eyes. "Are you okay, Sakura-san?"

"Hm… yeah, I'm just horrible – that's about it…"

"You and horrible? Who said that to you? Seriously, I won't let anyone insult you like that – tell me who it was and I –"

"No, Lee…" The emerald-eyed girl interrupted him. "I did something very stupid and I don't know how to make up for it…"

Lee looked at her in puzzlement, not really understanding how something his Sakura had done could be stupid and how someone could actually be mad at her. He eyed her closely and then reached the flower-bouquet, which he had actually meant to give Tenten to her and said: "Just try to smile – there's no way someone could hold a grudge against you, when you direct your beautiful smile of youthfulness at him."

The pinkette smiled slightly – this statement was just _soo_ Lee; then she took the flowers from him and thanked him quietly.

"See? That's the smile." He said encouragingly and with a light giggle, she started wiping the tears from her face.

"Thanks, Lee-kun." The pink-haired Kunoichi thanked him again but this time not for the flowers, but for his solace – normally his rather sententious language, was something you could just shake your head at, but right now, his words were just what she needed.

With a last smile, she took leave and decided to talk to Sayuri first, before she'd take any actions; she just hoped that she was still in the hospital… if possible, she wanted to speak to her before she got home and had the chance to inform Sasuke and Naruto about why she had behaved this bitchy lately, even though that was probably exactly what she deserved…

The pink haired girl started to run through the corridors of the hospital, until she finally reached the entrance hall, where she went right to the reception desk and inquired after Sayuri, but unfortunately the nurse behind the counter told her, that she had left about fifteen minutes ago, but was unable to tell her exactly where she had wanted to go to, so Sakura figured, she had gone home and went right after her.

…

…

As she arrived the Uchiha-mansion, she went through practically every room, without finding anyone at all.

She wondered where her housemates might be, until it occurred to her, that she hadn't seen Scootie either, meaning that Sayuri was probably just walking the dog, while the other two were probably just pursuing their favourite activity again, which would be training, of course.

Since she was all alone in the huge house and it was already six o'clock, she decided to prepare an extra big I'm-sorry-for-being-a-stroppy-cow meal that would make it at least hard for them to be _too_ mad at her any longer…

It took her almost two hours, to have all the courses prepared and still none of her team-mates had returned home yet. She was really starting to wonder what took them so long, since they were usually back somewhat around seven o'clock, so they were already an hour overdue.

She just hoped they would make it in time, so she hadn't prepared her spectacular meal for nothing - well, you couldn't say for nothing; she would surely not miss on eating this way too delicious food; her mouth was already watering at the mere thought of it…

She had just finished setting the table and was again worrying about her meal getting cold, when she heard how the door was opened and some familiar voices rose to her ears.

With a smile on her face, she greeted the two boys that had just entered the house and were about as ragged as usually after their training. However those just eyed her warily, hesitant to return her cheerful greeting, since they were still busy estimating whether she was having another mood swing or not. But the pinkette just ignored these looks - she knew she deserved them, and announced that dinner was ready.

The two shinobi looked at each other again, clearly puzzled, before Naruto asked hesitantly: "Really? You made dinner...? - Well I guess I'll have to take a shower first, then, I –"

"There's no need to – just come!" She cut him off, earning further disbelieving glances.

"Are you serious?" Naruto wanted to make sure he had really understood her right, since he had grown rather timid of her lately and didn't want to upset her by any chance.

"Yes, Naruto-kun, if you waste any more time, the food will probably get cold, so come on. Ah – and where is Sayuri?"

Now the two were really baffled, what the hell had happened to Sakura? This morning she was still on the warpath with just about everyone and now she was all bright and cheery again – something was terribly wrong.

"Uhm, I don't know, she'll probably come back soon, I guess…"

"I see..." Sakura said and with another beaming smile, she went into the kitchen, so she didn't see how Naruto leaned closer to Sasuke and muttered under his breath: "You don't think she has poisoned the food, right? I mean it's Sakura after all, right? – she wouldn't do something like this…"

"Hn."

"I mean, she is a medic-nin, maybe it's no deathly poisoned, but it could still be something with unpleasant side-effects like diarrhea or something…"

"Tze – shut it dobe." Sasuke smacked the back of the blonde boy's head and then went into the kitchen, closely followed by his team-mate, who's jar dropped open as he caught sight of the delicacies that were picturesquely arranged on the table.

"Wow!" was all Naruto could say, but Sakura just smiled cheerily and motioned him to sit down.

"I kind of wanted to apologize for being so… well strenuous lately… so I hope you like it - shall we wait for Sayuri?"

"Well, I guess she'll be here soon, so we might as well start! Enjoy your meal!" Naruto stated putting a little bit of everything on his plate, until he remembered his theory from earlier on and stiffened up slightly. This wasn't good – he had an easily irritated stomach anyway, he sure didn't need something like diarrhea right now – but everything looked so damn delicious…

He gazed surreptitiously at the Uchiha, who was staring rather unsettled at his plate, too and then at Sakura, who was still beaming at them like a Cheshire cat, but hadn't eaten anything likewise.

'Okay here's the plan' Naruto thought to himself 'if I eat the same things that Sakura eats, I should be on the safe side' – but since Sakura hadn't eaten anything yet and he was like starving, he really had some trouble in sticking to this plan, so after about 30 seconds, which felt like eternity to him though, he just couldn't hold back anymore and started to dig in, regardless of the consequences.

After he was done, he really felt somewhat queasy and his stomach was aching too, but he soon figured out that this wasn't because of any poison, but because of his gluttony – he had really exaggerated a little, but the food had just been way too good, Sakura was really a goddess in the kitchen – well as long as she wasn't making her soldier pills at least…

"Thank you Sakura-chan, that was really awesome, seriously!"

Naruto beamed at his team-mate and Sasuke grunted in approval, making the pinkette smile even more, however none of the two guys dared confronting Sakura with her sudden change of mind, they just hoped it would stay like this…

However Sayuri hadn't returned yet and Sakura was having a slightly guilty conscience, she had been really mean to her and regretted it deeply, but she couldn't turn back time, so all she could do now was trying to make it up to her, which would prove to be pretty hard, if she wasn't to return any time soon…

…

…


	26. Nightly events

**26. Nightly events**

After she had left the hospital and picked up her dog, Sayuri decided to have a short walk around the village, to settle her thoughts. Sakura's words had really affected her; to some extend, she could understand her friend's reaction: She knew about her feelings for Sasuke, even though she hadn't believed that they were still this strong… However it was painful that she hadn't talked to her first, but had drawn her own conclusions at once, which had been pretty offending as well… Especially those last words just remained stuck in her mind – Sakura had seriously thought, she had thrown herself at Sasuke and had even slept with him… In other words, that meant that one of her closest friends regarded her as a cheap slut – awesome.

A wry smile crossed her lips and she sighed in frustration, before she looked up to orientate herself, since she had just been strolling around aimlessly, for the last hour and had actually no idea of where exactly she was at the moment. She looked at her dog, as if expecting him to know, but he just wagged his tale, delighted by the attention he was getting and barked joyfully.

Still fairly clueless, the girl just decided to carry on walking and soon found herself at the western gate of Konoha-Gakure. She knew that it was quite far away from the Uchiha-mansion and since she hadn't really walked in a hurry, she must have been on the move, for at least one and a half hours and hadn't even noticed it.

"Awesome…" she sighed again and looked around, before she decided to head home again, hardly feeling better despite all her thinking, or more likely because of it.

…

…

About twenty minutes later, she came into a district, which mainly contained some small pubs and a few inns – it was a rather shabby borough judged by Konoha's standards, even though it wasn't even half as bad, as some entire villages were, she had seen during some of their missions. All the more surprising it was for her, to find a well-known person, wandering around in the still fairly crowded streets.

"Temari-san?!" she called out, causing the blonde-girl to turn around, with a first kind of baffled, but then merely grinning face.

"Sayuri-san, you're feeling better already?"

"Uh-huh – has taken long enough I guess…" The girl replied as she caught up to her friend.

"Maybe so; anyway - what are you doing here?" Temari asked curiously, while they started walking down the street.

"That's what I wanted to ask you – what the hell are you doing at a place like this?" Sayuri let her eyes wander inconspicuously over the shabby buildings, to emphasize what she meant.

"Well, I've asked someone where I could find some good restaurants and this is where I ended up… but you didn't answer my question, so?"

"Oh, well I'm on my way home; so just passing through – anyway, how are your preparations going?"

"Everything's fine, at this rate we'll be done far sooner than I had expected and than I preferred, which isn't good at all… I really don't know what has gotten into Shikamaru, but he is seriously doing something – I mean working! Can you imagine that?"

A sardonic grin appeared on the dark-haired girl's face and she started teasing her friend with a purring voice: "Speaking about Shikamaru… did you confess your feelings to him already?"

"What feelings? – are you kidding me?!" Temari shrieked angrily, causing the people near her to turn around in irritation, while her friend just grinned triumphantly.

"Tze – talking about feelings…" Temari commenced her counter-attack. "How come you didn't tell me about your 'thing' with the Uchiha, huh? I've heard some juicy stories about you two having an affair and so on…"  
Temari was still lost in her talking, so she hadn't noticed that the girl beside her had remained rooted to the spot after her last words. However as soon as she had finished speaking and was actually expecting a response, she turned around to her friend and eyed her totally stiff figure curiously.

"Sayuri-san?"

"Where the hell did you get that from?"

"During our preparations I've overheard some Chunin talking about it – even though I doubt you wanna hear their exact words, they were kind of vulgar… but I guess you know about all that at first hand, right?" Temari was unable to suppress a leer to flash over her face.

"You don't seriously believe any of that stuff, do you?" The Konoha-nin turned to her friend with a desperate look in her eyes, leading the girl to look at her in surprise.

"I… don't…?" Temari replied questioningly, but the girl next to her merely sighed in obvious frustration.

"Of course not! That's not even anywhere near the truth at all…" Sayuri retorted, shocked that the Suna-nin had seriously considered some truth behind these stories.

"Why would someone spread the rumours then?"

"Because Sakura believed them to be true and apparently ran right to Ino –"  
"Oh – I see!" Temari exclaimed; she knew Ino's reputation and didn't need to ask anything further.

"So it's really making the round, huh? Great…"

"But how come Sakura would think that…well… you two and –"  
"She has seen me talking to him and then we have also been sharing a room lately… well, as it seems that was enough for her." Sayuri interrupted her friend bitterly.

"I see, so there is really nothing between…-"

"Temari!"

"Okay, okay… well then you should just quash the rumours, right? Just go to Ino and she'll do that for you… well in case she believes you…"

"I've been able to convince Sakura by now, so maybe she'll clarify things herself, after all she's the source of all the rumours…"  
"Man, I guess Sakura has been really pissed as she 'found out', right?"

"Too right… the last days have been really devastating and the best part about all that was, that I didn't even know, what her behaviour was all about. I've only just been able to get her to talk and she didn't mince her matters – I can tell you!"

"That bad?"

"Pretty bad, but I don't really want to talk about it…"  
This statement actually made Temari even more curious, but as she looked at her friend, she realized that she was still affected by what had happened and so she decided to change the topic.

"So… how is living with the Uchiha like? Is he behaving like you would expect a real Nuke-nin to?"

"How would that be?" The dark haired girl giggled, relieved that her opposite had respected her silent request and now eyed her curiously.

"Well like always grumpy for example and uttering death threats all the time, hiding corpses in the closets and – you know what I mean?"

"The grumpy is true, however he hasn't uttered enough words yet to make a death threat out of them… he's more or less just there, you hardly realize his presence most of the time… and about the corpses – well they are pretty bothersome – I always have bloodstains on my clothes when he decides to hide them somewhere among my things, but I've gotten him to pay the laundry at least…" She sighed dramatically and looked at her grinning friend.

"Oh I see – really social of him… so… well… do you think he's planning something, or has he really come back because he missed this place?"

The events, that had caused this late trouble in the first place, ran through Sayuri's mind and she pondered whether she should induct Temari in her suspicions or not, but decided against it.

"I don't know yet… I guess we'll see soon…"

"Yeah right – my hotel is here… you wanna come in and have a cup of tea?"

"Hm… I don't know… I guess I should go home now –"

"Ah come on, just a few minutes - it's not that late yet and if you left me alone now, I would just bore myself to death, so – pretty please?" Temari intertwined her fingers and fluttered her eyelashes, receiving a devious grin in return.

"Is that how you get Shikamaru to do what you want?"

"Exactly!" She exclaimed and just took hold of the other girls hand and dragged her upstairs with her.

…

…

"How trustworthy is this information?" Tsunade asked her assistant gravely, while she thumbed through some documents, lying on the huge time-worn oak table in front of her.

"We've heard from numerous sources, about their being on the move again. They've crossed and occasionally even attacked some of the villages in the Land of Thunder. They are still far away, but there is no doubt that they are moving towards Konoha." The black haired woman concluded and looked at her opposite, who had just emptied another glass of tea, anxiously, since in consideration of the rather precarious situation, Sake would be quite inappropriate.

"How many are they?"

"As it seems, they are journeying in a team of two people."

"Just as always…"  
"Yes." Shizune replied, looking down to the floor, before she asked: "Tsunade-sama? Do you think they'll come for –"

"Naruto?" The blonde concluded "most likely…"

"So what are we going to do?"

"I've actually meant to send Naruto's team on a mission to Suna-Gakure, however I'll just exchange that mission with the one I had actually meant for Team-Guy, since, with Tenten in the hospital, they are incomplete at the moment anyway."  
"You want to send them to the Land of Snow?" Tsunade's assistant asked incredulously. "You don't think Naruto would seriously leave if he knew about any of this?"

"He wouldn't, but that's why he won't get to know anything… Anyway, I have trust in his team, they'll do well for the mission and Naruto will be as far away from the danger as possible. Besides we shouldn't forget that the Uchiha is with him too – they should be fine, but just in case I'll place someone else in their team, to support them – someone who is informed about the threat emerging from the Akatsuki…"

"Who would that be?" Shizune asked, refilling Tsunade's glass out of sheer habit, as she held it up in an appellative manner.

"Well, I already have someone in mind…"

…

…

The 'few minutes' had turned into a few hours, so as Sayuri finally left the small, old-fashioned hotel Temari was staying in, it was already close to midnight. The two girls had been so lost in their chatting that they hadn't even realized just how much time had passed and now Sayuri still had a fairly long way back home, even though she had to get up early next morning, since they finally had another meeting with Tsunade. They didn't know what it was about yet, but since they were all invited, they figured they would finally get a new mission.

It was good that she had more or less cleared things up with Sakura again, otherwise this mission would have been a pain in the neck - no doubt about that. She was still somewhat hurt by Sakura's words, but decided not to make a fuss about it – it couldn't be changed now anyway, so there was no use in whining about it.

On her way back, she came across the path, she usually took, when she headed towards the cliffs – the place she had met Sasuke again.

She stood there pondering for quite some time whether she should take a quick side trip or not, when she realized that her feet had already started moving and just a short time later she was already outside of the village.

This time she was feeling different than she usually did when she came here; she just seated herself on the ground and stroked her dog, not reflecting about her own state of mind, but about the things that had happened right after she had been here the last time.

A lot of things had changed, there was no point in denying that and even though she wasn't feeling too good at the moment, she nonetheless felt as if it had been a change for the better. She enjoyed having room-mates and she was glad that her old team was kind of back together again, even though she still had some slight concerns about Sasuke, but she didn't want to let them get the best of her - nevertheless she would stay alert, just in case… but she actually doubted it was necessary.

…

…

Hidden in the shadows, a dark figure was on the watch, in the woods outside of Konoha, just like the other days before, too.

It was another uneventful night – as boring as ever – until he caught sight of a person, sneaking out of the village.

Not lifting his eyes off the suspect, he suppressed his chakra and remained hidden in the dense foliage of the numerous trees, making sure he was invisible to the other person – not really a difficult task, since the moonless night caused his figure to melt completely into the shadows. However the darkness also had its negative sides – he had to stick close to the person, so that he wouldn't loose sight of it and it was hard to discern, whether the person was male or female, armed or not and so on… However the fact, that this person had sneaked out of the village in the middle of the night made it suspicious and after - the girl, as it seemed, had gotten out of the woody part and therefore into the at least a little bit brighter region, he also perceived an animal – probably a dog walking right next to her.

He had actually hoped that finally something a little more spectacular would happen – this however turned out to be a little disappointing. The girl didn't really look suspicious any longer and was probably just walking her dog or something – but then why outside of Konoha? Maybe there was more to it than he had thought. He actually doubted it, but maybe this really was what they had been waiting for all the time… and given that he didn't really have anything better to do at the moment anyway and since he would kick himself if this really was the person they were trying to find and he hadn't realized it, he shouldered his huge sword and decided to follow her.

He was eager not to miss a single thing she did, hoping it was something that would give away her identity and the purpose of her nightly walk. Anyhow, after all the time they had been out here, hardly seeing anything more than a few stupid animals, he would finally have something to say on their next meeting, which was due in a few days… Up to now, their job had been completely fruitless, much to the frustration of their boss; they were still as clueless as at the beginning, but maybe that would change now and it would be thanks to him…

A wide grin spread on his face and his sharp white teeth stood out from the darkness surrounding him, as he jumped with experienced movements from one tree to the other.

…

…


	27. Departure

**27. ****Departure**

As the violet-haired Kunoichi finally arrived home, it was already 2 o'clock. She entered the huge mansion and groped her way through the dark corridors, cautious not to make any sounds that might awake her housemates that were probably fast asleep by now.

When she at last reached the door of the room she shared with Sasuke, she carefully slid it open and scurried through the small gap, while casting a short glance at the sleeping figure of her roommate.

His face was turned towards the door and held a peaceful – almost innocent – expression on it – it seemed like he hadn't noticed her arrival and was still sound asleep.

Since she wanted it to stay like this, she merely slid off her jacket and laid down on her futon, still fully dressed, but ready for sleep to come and get her. However as she had scarcely made herself comfortable and was just about to close her eyes, she heard a deep, firm voice coming from behind her.

"Where have you been?"  
Her eyes fluttered open in surprise – apparently she'd been mistaken and he hadn't been asleep after all. She hesitantly turned to the other side and looked at the young man in the other bed, who was now bluntly staring at her; every bit of the former softness and cuteness vanished from his features.

"Did I wake you?"

A short grunt was the only response she was getting, however his unwavering glance told her that he was still waiting for an answer to his question, so she merely stated: "Taken a walk…", before she turned around again and pressed her eyes tightly shut, fully aware of his piercing gaze resting on the back of her head; a very unpleasant feeling, but she tried to block it out as best as she could and fell asleep quite soon.

…

…

The next morning a loud knock was heard and without waiting for an invitation, the door was slammed open and banged so noisily against the wall that it wouldn't have been surprising to find a deep crack in it.

"Sayuri-chan?!" The blonde boy exclaimed loudly as he hurried, still in his pyjamas into the room, looking around frantically, until he caught sight of his sleepy team-mate, pulling the covers over her head, to block out the light and the noise. "Sayuri-chan! There you are!"

He started to tug at her blanket, when suddenly something hard hit the back of his head and made him almost fall down to the floor.

"Baka! What the hell do you think you are doing?!" The pink-haired Kunoichi, which had just appeared in the doorway as well, barked, upset about Naruto's impudent behaviour.

"Sakura-chan, I just…" he tried to defend himself, but as he looked into the pinkette's outraged face, he fell silent and merely muttered a half-hearted apology, while he still pressed one hand against his head, trying to keep it from throbbing.

The raven-haired man had watched the whole scene with an annoyed expression on his face; this sure didn't match his vision of a pleasant morning, even though he didn't really have any expectations.

Meanwhile, the blue-eyed Kunoichi had emerged from under her covers as well and stared in befuddlement at her two team mates, while trying to smother a yawn.

"What is it?" she mumbled rather perplexed, since she was still half asleep, and nestled herself under her blanket again, hardly able to keep her eyes from closing again.

"'What is it?' – Are you kidding me? You've been gone all night long, without even telling us! We've been really worried, right Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme?" Naruto nodded meaningfully to Sakura, who nodded as well and then to Sasuke, who didn't react though, before he sat down on the floor, right next to the girl's mattress, clearly expecting an explanation.

Sayuri shot an insecure smile at Sakura, which was returned at once, even though it was at least equally anxious as hers, before she looked at the blonde boy next to her and asked confusedly: "You've been worried?"

"Of course we have…" this time it was Sakura who answered, before the knucklehead ninja continued: "You can't just leave like this, seriously, I was actually about to go search for you –"

"- Yeah, but then you rather fell asleep!" Sakura interrupted him with a sardonic grin flashing over her face, causing Naruto's face to fall slightly and he was just about to protest, when the departure of the Uchiha caught his full attention. "Teme?! Where are you going?"

But the clan-heir had already left the room and so Naruto started pouting: "Damn that arrogant –"

"Naruto!" Sakura barked at him again, causing the Uzumaki to raise his hands in defence.

"Sorry, Sakura-chan! Well I guess we should get ready for our mission then!" Naruto turned into cheerful-mode again as he jumped excitedly to his feet.

"We don't know yet if we get a mission."  
"I know, but I have a feeling that we do, our holiday is over anyway – so it's about time!"

"Yeah probably. So then…" The Haruno looked at the young man meaningfully.

"So then…?" He replied, not really grasping what she was hinting at.

"Baka! How is Sayuri supposed to get dressed when you are in the same room, so get out!" Sakura bellowed, causing the chaos ninja to jump up in shock and hurry out of the room, while muttering some hushed apologies.

As soon as he was gone, the emerald-eyed girl turned towards her female team-mate, a rueful smile present on her lips. "Sayuri-san, I'm really sorry for –"  
"It's okay. Really –" Sayuri interrupted her: "I overreacted a bit, but I'm glad everything's okay again."

"Yeah, me too." The two girls beamed at each other, before Sakura left the room to get dressed herself.

…

…

"Well then, there is just one person missing." The honey-eyed woman concluded, getting up from her desk and stepping in front of the glass facade, from which she had a good view of the not yet crowded market in the centre of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

"What? Who's missing? I didn't know we were expecting anyone else!" Naruto looked at his team-mates trying to figure out whether they were in on that thing or not.

"There is a lot you don't know…" The Hokage yawned, before she lazily strolled back to her desk and let herself fall into her chair.

"But who is coming?!" Naruto asked agitatedly, causing the blonde woman to frown in dismal.

"Naruto could you drop the volume please?" Tsunade sighed resigned, agony clearly audible in her voice.

"Hang-over?" Sakura asked cautiously, trying to sound concerned, but hardly able to suppress a grin.

"Mhm…" The Godaime affirmed and let her head drop down on her desk, earning a scornful grunt from the Uchiha, but feeling too miserable to retort.

Actually she hadn't meant to drink anything the day before since things were tense like this and she had wanted to keep a clear head, however as they had been done with talking their situation over, she was way too troubled to fall asleep right away, so she had dragged Shizune with her and they had spend most of the night drinking in some shabby pubs, where they hoped no one would be sober enough to recognize them, but since she'd been too drunk herself, she didn't know whether her plan had worked out or not.

"So who is coming?" Naruto put a hand around his mouth, the way you do when you whisper to someone close by, but then spoke in nearly the same volume as before, causing Tsunade to twitch in pain and pull her arms closer over her ears, to block out the tormenting noise.

"Shht" Sakura hushed him sternly and so they just stood there for almost fifteen minutes, until Sayuri finally broke the silence.

"I know who's missing."  
"You do?! Who is it?!" Naruto shrieked excitedly, ignoring the deadly glare Tsunade was sending him.

"Well, who would dare to come too late to a meeting ordered by the Hokage?" she asked and now it finally dawned on her team-mates, well on everyone except for Naruto.

"Huh? A riddle? It's still way early, you know…" The blonde boy grimaced, before pondering hardly, earning disbelieving glances from the rest of his Team.

"Hmm… who would dare, let's see… maybe someone who can't read the clock?"

"You're not serious, are you?" Sakura asked him dryly, feeling completely dumbfounded.

"You know it?"

Simultaneously, everyone in the small bureau dropped his head with a sigh – unable to comprehend how the blonde could seriously be this clueless.

"Ha!" He pointed at them. "You don't know it yourself and just want to make me look bad! Great friends you are…"

"Yes, Naruto – that must be it…" Tsunade was just about to reveal the mystery for the Uzumaki, when there was a sudden 'puff!' and a cloud of smoke started to fill Tsunade's bureau, out of which soon stepped a grey-haired Jounin with a small orange book in his hands.

"Ah! Kakashi-sensei, of course!" Naruto shrieked pointing a hand at the grey-haired man.

"I'm sorry, but I fear I got lost on the path of life…" he apologized, scratching the back of his head, while he inconspicuously hid his favourite book in his backpouch.

"You're late!" Tsunade exclaimed bitterly, but then got up and looked with a straight face at the group of people in front of her.

"The reason I summoned you today, is because you get a mission as the original Team Kakashi."

"Yay a mission!" Naruto cheered, but soon fell quiet at the sight of Tsunade's fierce features.

"Yes, Naruto a mission. Can I go on now?"

"Of course!"

"Really?"

"Sure, get on with it!" Naruto shrieked in irritation and watched how the Godaime started massaging her sleeves.

"Okay, no interruptions – you got that?" She looked into the round, just receiving silent nods and so she finally started to explain.

"Yuki-Gakure, is a country, governed by one of two political parties led each by a lord coming from two different families, who is elected every 5 years by the citizens. The last election took place 2 years ago, but the people are rather unsatisfied with the momentary lord's administration, which has led to riots, most likely kindled by some rebelling members of the rivalling party, which are even taking terroristic scales. Recently they have even infiltrated the reigning lord's household and attempted to kill him. So since he isn't able to trust his own people any longer, the lord, Kihimi Jousuke, has requested aid from the outside. Therefore you are to travel to the Land of Snow as soon as possible, put down the rebellion and ensure the lord's security. You get the little details we've received already from the scrolls over here. Your team-leader will be Hatake Kakashi. Got it?"

"Yes." They all replied and as soon as they were outside of the office, you could hear Naruto cheer elatedly – this mission was just to his likings, it was sure going to be exciting, he was raring to head out, so he turned to the Hatake and asked: "Kakashi-sensei, when will we leave?"

"Hmm… let's see – we'll meet in two hours at the main gate, - that should give you enough time to prepare for this mission, all right?"

"Two hours like… two hours? - or like we are there in two hours and you turn up like… way later…" Sayuri enquired cautiously, receiving eager nods from her other team-members and soon a few couples of big eyes were directed at the Jounin, who, clearly feeling uncomfortable, scratched the back of his head and muttered. "Well… then let's say three hours, see you!" he winked at them and vanished with a plop.

…

…

Precisely three hours later, four shinobi were gathered in front of the main gate of Konoha, impatiently awaiting their sensei's arrival, but just like always he wasn't on time.

Sakura put down her bag and seated herself on it, evidently thinking that they would have to wait here for quite some time. However just about fifteen minutes later, which was more or less a new record for the Hatake, he finally showed up with a wide grin on his face, that was actually hidden by his mask, but since he was always laughing with his whole face you could nonetheless make out his expression.

"So then, everybody ready for our new mission?"

"Sure!" More or less everyone replied in an excited voice, eager on finally having something to do apart from training.

"Yo, Kakashi-sensei! How long will the journey to Yuki-Gakure take?" Naruto asked animatedly as they had only just set a couple of steps out of their home-village.

"Well Naruto-kun, we've already been there before, remember?"

"Oh, of course, we've been there with Koyuki, right?"

"Exactly." The grey-haired man grinned again with closed eyes. "So you'll sure remember, that we've been travelling for approximately seven days."  
"Seven days?!" Naruto shrieked in bewilderment and stared at his team-mates that didn't seem to be surprised at all.

"We won't need a whole week this time, since we are travelling alone and can take the direct way, but it will definitely take five days at least."

"Hmm… five days and if we hurry?"

"That's already included."  
"Damn it! Well then let's get going – I wanna kick some rebels' asses!" Naruto exclaimed and started running off, while the rest of his team just shook their heads at his impatience, but soon caught up with his speed.

…

…

After three and a half days of travelling, Team 7 eventually arrived their first destination; the Okuzawa Harbour, from where a ferry should take them to Yuki-Gakure. However, that ferry turned out to be a simple cargo boat, which was supposed to transport raw materials as well as food supplies to the Land of Snow; accordingly this wasn't going to be a pleasant journey.

The five shinobi had just two two-person cabins on hand, so Kakashi voluntarily proposed to stay in the storage room. Therefore, just as they had at the beginning, now the two girls shared one 'room' again, as did the two boys – everything was just fine, until, as they were just about an hour away from Yuki-Gakure, the alarm-bells started sounding all of a sudden, causing the five Konoha-nins to hurry on deck, searching for the source of this turmoil.

"What's going on?" Kakashi asked the first member of the crew he came across.

"We are under attack!" he shouted and was just about to rush off again, when Naruto held him back and enquired: "By whom?! Who would attack such a simple ship?"

Now slightly offended, the man turned back to him and explained: "In case you didn't notice, our cargo is very valuable and a lot of people would like to lay hands on it – and so do they; even though by stealing our cargo they mainly want to demonstrate that the lord is unable to rule his own land…"

"So this attack is started by the rebels?" Sakura joined the conversation, not raising her eyes from the other ship that was rapidly approaching them.

"Of course it is! We need to secure our freight! If you could, please help us!" He begged and ran off towards the storage rooms.

The grey-haired Jounin watched the utter chaos, dominating the deck, before he looked at his students and announced: "Our mission starts right now; make sure to keep the rebels from invading the ship. Go!"

His team didn't need to be told twice, but rushed off the very second he had finished talking. With a wide smile the Hatake watched his students leave; they were still as eager on dangerous missions as they had been the very first day – 'good', he smirked before leaning back against a wall, not minding the mayhem going on around him, but pulling out the newest version of the Icha-Icha-series and leaving the fighting to his team.

Those had positioned themselves at every flank of the boat, waiting for the enemy to get closer, until Naruto suddenly shrieked: "There's another ship coming from the left; still about 50 metres away from us!"

"There's one on the right too!" Sayuri added "They are trying to surround us."

"They are still too far away for an attack; we need to wait till they get closer before we can do anything!" Sakura observed, but then her eyes widened slightly, as she saw that their enemies apparently didn't mind the distance. She could see something red flicker on deck of one of the ships, but the next second that flame, or whatever it was, expired, and then there was an ear-splitting bang, causing her to twitch together and close her eyes, out of sheer reflex. However when she opened them again, she could see the red flame from before in the air, now just about 20 metres away from her and approaching at a tremendous speed.

What should she do? She couldn't just punch it away or something, no way! But while she was still thinking, the flame had almost reached her so she threw her hands in front of her face and pressed her eyes shut, waiting for the fire to seize her, when she heard a voice coming from behind her.  
"Katon Gokakyu no Jutsu!"

The Uchiha had appeared behind her and was now confronting their enemies' blaze with one of his own. The pinkette watched in amazement how his Katon Jutsu just consumed their, in comparison small fireball, and just dashed towards the enemies' ship, destroying it at one blow.

"Th- thank you, Sasuke-kun…" She whispered shyly, but the clan-heir just grunted almost inaudibly, before he turned around and went back to his post.

At first the thought of Sasuke having saved her delighted Sakura, but then that also meant that she had had to be saved again; that she couldn't do things on her own – that she was useless. No way! She had worked way too hard to let others safe her when it mattered, she would show them how strong she had become, so after these thoughts of encouragement, Sakura joined the frays that had just started on deck, taking on as many opponents as she possibly could.

…

…

It took them only 15 minutes – much to Naruto's annoyance - to get rid of all the rebels that had invaded their boat, since hardly any of them seemed to have been trained fighters.

Then, another 30 minutes later, they were travelling again, noticing that the closer they came to Yuki-Gakure, the colder the air got, so all the Ninja's decided to spend the rest of their journey inside where it was at least a bit warmer.

"Man, if that's all those rebels have got, than this mission's gonna be a piece of cake – a total waste of my skills…" Naruto stretched himself before he let himself fall into one of the folding chairs that were standing in the shabby shack they had gathered in, but was soon corrected by his Sensei: "The mission is far from being easy; all odds are against us: we are not only fighting against a superior number of opponents, we don't know anything about, but we are also fighting in their terrain, so they have more or less all the advantages on their side."

"Tze, that won't help them, if they can't do better than this."

After these words, all eyes turned to the Uchiha, who had just voluntarily participated in a conversation! Noticing their surprised gazes, the clan-heir just turned around with a snarl and seated himself in the farthest away corner of the room, which wasn't really far away at all, but still everyone realized, that this was probably his own way of sulking and so they just grinned at each other, before they continued their conversation.

"Besides they are probably able to use Ice-Jutsu, which will be a great advantage in the area we'll be fighting in, so don't underestimate them."

"So how will we proceed after we've gone ashore?" Sakura asked interestedly, but then caught sight of the apparently napping Naruto and, with a frightening grimace on her face, kicked against his already unstable chair, causing the blonde to fall straight on his back with a loud bang.

"Sakura-chan? What the hell was that for?!"

"Baka! We won't take the blame when you screw up, so you better listen to this!

"What?! I never screw up!" The chaos ninja shrieked indignantly, pointing a finger at his chest, to make sure that she was really talking about him.

"Shht, calm down now." The Hatake tried to hush them, but just earned some offended looks, so he just sighed and decided to pay no attention to them. "As soon as we're on shore, we'll take a route, which leads us mostly around the mountains to the interior of the country. I've decided to avoid the mountains as best as possible, since the temperature is even lower in the higher regions than in the lower ones, so we should rather accept a detour, than straining ourselves unnecessarily."

"A detour?! How much longer will it take?" The Uzumaki asked completely aghast.

"Just about half a day."

"Half a day?!" He shrieked at the top of his voice. "No way, let's take the other route! We can –"  
"No, Naruto!" The grey-haired man interrupted him strictly.

"But why?"

"Because it's safer – and because I said so."  
"But –"  
"No discussion."

"Oh damn it!" The blonde punched the air to let out his frustration, earning some synchronous eye-rollers from his team-mates.

"Anyway" The Hatake ignored Naruto but turned to the rest of his team. "We should reach the island in a few minutes; you should pack your things and dress according to the temperature, since you've already been in the Land of Snow, I think I won't have to dwell on that topic… just keep in mind that it's been summer the last time we've been here, so now that it's almost winter it will be even colder here. - And you should expect a direct attack as soon as we go ashore, so make sure to be prepared. That's it then."

"Okay" They all replied and watched their Team-leader leave the cabin, probably taking off to the storage-room, where he had resided the best part of their 10 hour journey, before turning to their own things.

Still a little sulky, Naruto threw a black cloak with bright orange flames at it's fringes, around his shoulders and gazed proudly at his rather irritated looking team-mates.

"What is this?" Sayuri asked confusedly, pointing warily at the eye-stinging thing, Naruto just got dressed in.

"This?! This is the ultra special Uzumaki-Naruto-Cloak, approved by Ero-sennin!" He grinned, raising his hand to form a victory sign he pointed into the round.

"Are you kidding?" Sakura shot a perplexed look at him and Sayuri added: "Maybe those guys aren't especially strong, but you shouldn't push your luck too far…" Frowning, the chaos ninja looked down on his cloak, not really grasping what they were talking about, so Sakura tried to clarify it further: "In case you forgot, we are in the Land of _Snow, _which means that we are mainly travelling on white ground; with that thing, you will be clearly visible even from miles away."

"But I just have that one! Do you want me to get frostbitten out there?"

"Well, maybe if you turn it inside-out?" Sayuri motioned the blonde to hand her his coat and inspected it sceptically. "Damn – it just _had_ to be orange from the inside, naturally…" She rolled her eyes and handed the cape back to the blonde boy.

"There." The Uchiha went to the now desperately whimpering boy and passed him his kimono-like overgarments, he'd been wearing since he had joined Orochimaru and then just pulled his own grey cloak over his now topless upper body, completely oblivious of Sakura's gaping.

"That's not much warmer than my own clothes!" Naruto shrieked completely dumbfounded, before Sakura, still a little distracted, lectured him: "Baka, you can put it over your clothes, it's white you see, you'll be at least partly concealed in the snow…"  
"Ah, I see thanks Teme!" But the Uchiha didn't reply and just a second later they felt a sudden impulse, signifying, that they had just reached the shore, so they threw their bags over their shoulders and walked out of the cabin.

…

…


	28. Snowstorm

**28. Snowstorm **

A tall, brown-haired man stood motionless on the fringes of a deep deciduous forest, bordering the Land of Thunder. There was no sound, except for the occasional twittering of some native birds and the babbling of a flowing river close by, until there was a sudden rustling, which caused the man to open his eyes, which he had kept closed up to that second and look at the three people that were now standing in front of him.

"Found out anything?" He enquired as he let his eyes wander from one person to the next.

"Depends on how you look at it… We've been able to pick up their scent, but then it got lost all of a sudden, as if the earth had swallowed them up, right Akamaru?"

The huge, wolfish dog let out an affirmative bark and bowed slightly, as his owner climbed down from his back.

"My insects lost all traces of their chakra once we departed the nearby village as well, but from how faint those trails were, they must have left this place about two days ago." Shino stated dryly, while he adjusted his darkly tinted glasses, which along with his high collar, covered the most part of his face, giving him a grim and secretive appearance.

"Uh-huh." Hinata muttered, since she couldn't think of adding anything her team-mates hadn't said before.

"They just vanished?" Yamato, asked Team Kurenai, which he had been asked to take over, due to their Sensei's pregnancy. The three Chunin just nodded gravely in response and Kiba added: "So what do we do now?"

"Well, we'll go to some of the places they attacked directly and see if we can get more information there…" Yamato explained after some time of consideration.

"Uhm Yamato-taicho… but what do we do in case we should cross their paths…?" The blue-haired girl asked hesitantly, since the prospect of taking on the Akatsuki all by themselves made her feel slightly uneasy.

"Isn't that obvious" Kiba asked in a boisterous voice, while a boastful grin started to spread on his face. "We'll kick their asses of course! We'll show them what happens to people that take Konoha lightly!"

"That's out of the question." Their team-leader corrected him soberly, and drew the eyes of the three Chunin to him.

"What?!" The Inuzuka asked incredulously, while his face dropped slightly, but the ANBU didn't relent and answered in the same monotonous and unyielding voice:

"You are the best tracking-squad Konoha accommodates at the moment. Therefore your sole task lies in tracing the Akatsuki and send news of their whereabouts to Konoha – not in fighting them."

"Are you kidding? Konoha lies almost 30 hours away from here!" The brown-haired boy complained, a little offended that they apparently thought them incapable of handling the Akatsuki on their own.

"Kiba is right." Hinata threw in, with her usual thin voice and all attention was focussed on her at once, what caused her to blush slightly, but she carried on nonetheless: "We'd first have to send a message to Konoha and then wait for their reaction, so we'd have to count with at least 60 hours before someone arrives – there's no way we can keep track on them for such a long time without them noticing."

"It won't be necessary to wait for aid from Konoha." Yamato implied secretively and stared into some quizzical faces, so he started to clarify things further: "Because of the threat arising from Akatsuki, Tsunade-sama has positioned her best ANBU-squads at the north-eastern borders of the fire country, merely a couple of hours away from here. So once we encounter them we send word to them and they'll send a backup squad, we are free to support in case it's necessary. Apart from that we'll stay away from the Akatsuki, no matter what."

"We have to wait for help from some haughty ANBUs?"

"Kiba-kun!" Hinata interrupted her team-mate scandalized and shot an apologetic glance at their team-leader, who just smiled constrainedly and shook his head slightly.

"No offence, Yamato-taicho." Kiba apologized laxly and carried on: "I mean we'd still have to wait for them for some hours right, so if we'd spend that time with fighting the Akatsuki instead of with hiding in some bushes, we could already be done with them once they'd arrive here and then the ANBU would just have to carry them home – I bet they'd be thankful for a day off, right?"

"It's obvious that you never encountered the Akatsuki before – even our best ANBU-squads will have problems to take them on – remember Asuma even died while facing them, the four of us wouldn't stand a chance against them-"

"But-" Kiba interrupted resentfully, but Yamato cut him off. "No, Kiba, we'll stick straight to our orders, once we find them we'll hide or if necessary run away and now we should leave for the other sites they've been seen at." Yamato ordered and started walking ahead, while Kiba grumbled something unintelligible before he joined the rest of his team that had already started following their temporary team-leader.

…

…

As they descended the boat, the five Shinobi pulled their capes closer to their bodies, trying to provide as small a target to the icy wind as possible and scanned the area for enemies.

After a few moments they were positive, that the coast was clear and so they commenced their journey through the Land of Snow, that literally lived up to its name; it really was freezing cold, and even though it wasn't snowing at the moment, the heavy, slightly red tinged clouds that were covering the entire sky conveyed the impression that it wouldn't take much longer until it started.

Before they had reached the shore, Naruto had first just pulled Sasuke's shirt over his usual clothes, but as soon as he had left the cabin, he realized that it was much colder than he had anticipated, therefore he had pulled out his own coat again and put it underneath it, so now the white cloth covered his upper body completely, but wasn't long enough to cover his entire cloak, so the orange flames were still clearly visible, especially since everything around him was utterly white. He was more or less looking like a child that had just absolved his first attempt at dressing himself and failed completely. Everyone else had dressed more or less in inconspicuous colours, varying from white to light green and some shades of grey, too. However all their concealing-measures seemed to have been superfluous, since in the first 20 hours of their journey they didn't encounter a single living soul - much to the disappointment of some individual beings.

"Yo, Kakashi-sensei, are we almost there yet?" Naruto asked yawning, before a violent shudder ran through his whole body and he wrapped his arms around his torso to shelter himself from the gelid wind.

"Naruto, I told you an hour ago, that we still need to travel for another 9 hours, so how long do you think our journey will take?" The Hatake asked rolling his eyes at Naruto's repeated, childish question.

"I know that, but can't we go any faster? This is so boring – nothing happens… and if we would run we wouldn't be freezing this much either…"

"It would be rather unwise to run in an area like this, as soon as we reach a more secure and solid route we can raise our speed again."

"Hmm…" Naruto pouted and looked around; they were just walking on a narrow mountain path in about 50 metres height. They had tried to avoid the mountain regions as best as they could, but it wasn't entirely possible, so now they had to walk in single file through this, without a doubt, colder region. They didn't exchange many words on their route; they were way too busy with clattering their teeth.

Not only the wind but also the snow increased, the higher they got and after some time it was almost impossible to see anything but the white flickering of the snow-flakes that had finally started to fall and furthermore the wind roaring through the canyon made a lot of noise, so it was almost impossible to communicate as well.

They were still rather far away from the top of the mountain they were targeting, when Kakashi came to a sudden stop and Naruto, who was right behind him bumped straight into his back.

"Kakashi-sensei, what is it?!" Naruto screamed into the wind, but Kakashi just gripped his hand and motioned him to do so with the rest of his team, as well. After a first shock, since holding hands with his porn-loving teacher wasn't really something Naruto was overly keen of, he understood what this whole thing was about and turned around a little to grip for Sakura's hand, who reacted even worse than he had, causing the blonde almost to fall into the depth, as the pinkette's fist collided with his jaw, but since Kakashi was still holding his hand, he was able to pull him up before anything grave could happen.

Naruto cursed, even though no one could hear him and tried again to take Sakura's hand, but making sure to warn her in advance and this time the pinkette understood his actions and let him, before she turned around and looked at the Uchiha. As she realized that she would have to hold his hand for the rest of the journey, heat started to rise into her cheeks, what was actually quite comfortable, since the cold wind had numbed her considerably, but still she hesitated to seize the opportunity.

What if he wouldn't take her hand? Well this was part of the mission so she really didn't have much of a choice; therefore she stretched her hand out into his direction, positively surprised that he gripped it at once. She could hardly see his face but smiled at him anyway, before she turned around again and at least tried to concentrate on her path, even though her thoughts were mainly focused on the still slightly warm hand, enclosing her own.

Sasuke turned around as well and just gripped Sayuri's hand, who twitched slightly in surprise, but didn't hesitate to return his grip.

They walked like this for quite some time, but then the violet-haired girl sensed something behind them and turned her head around, still with her eyes closed, so she had a better view of her surroundings; not a perfect one though, she could merely see everything in an unvarying black and white shade, regardless of the actual colours and the lightning conditions and she could only perceive the things she really focussed on, there was no peripheral vision, so her sight was pretty restricted, but she was at least able to block out things with a low density – that's why she could see through the snowstorm.

She was sure she had glimpsed some movement, somewhere at the mountain peak, they still hadn't reached yet, so she tried to concentrate harder, causing her to decrease her pace, so that she was nearly dragged now by the man in front of her, what didn't go unnoticed by him. He looked over his shoulder but was barely able to see anything, so he pressed her hand briefly, waiting for an explanation, but even though she felt the sudden pressure, she didn't react to it, since she was still too busy with concentrating.

…

…

"Looks like the one over there noticed us." The large man with the silvery-white hair, standing on a snow-covered rock at the mountain peak said to the one sitting on the ground right next to him. They were both dressed in white, except for a light grey vest with many pockets to store scrolls and weapons in them and hardly stood out from their surroundings, if it wasn't for the dark-red hair of the slightly smaller one, who turned to his side, apparently offended by this assumption and glowered at the Yuki-nin next to him.

"Tze – impossible; my snowstorm is blinding them, no doubt about that."

"And why then is that girl staring straight into our direction?"  
"Who knows…" He pondered while he jumped to his feet and stared down at the people that were travelling on a path far below them: " … but we shouldn't take any risk; looks like the rest of them is still clueless, so we should just separate her from the group and everything will be fine."

"Why? We could just as well attack all of them simultaneously and get rid of them in an instant…" The Yuki-nin with the sleek, white hair stated monotonously, not glancing at his partner while doing so.

"Tze – and where is the fun in that?" The red-head shrugged with a mischievous grin on his face "Let's scare them a little and take them out one by one, starting with this girl…"

"I see." The white haired man replied with a synthetic grin on his face that contorted his blank features in a weird manner and started forming some hand signs.

"Suiton, Haran Banshô."

He stated in an apathetic tone and just a moment later, a deluge of water started running down the mountain face right in front of them, causing every surface it came in contact with to freeze at once and soon ran up the path, the five Konoha-nins were just taking.

…

…

Sayuri scanned the mountain top again but still couldn't find anything, so she finally gave up and turned around again, still not able to shake off the queasy feeling that had overcome her so suddenly. The Uchiha was still examining the girl behind him and as soon as she noticed it, she merely shrugged her shoulder, not sure if he had seen it, but since he turned around again she was quite sure of it.

However just a few seconds later, she was again struck by a bad premonition, even worse than the one before, something sure was terribly wrong, so she spun around in shock, releasing Sasuke' hand to grip for a weapon, but the very second she had turned around, she felt the ground underneath her feet change its texture and turn to ice, causing her to slip and slide down the entire mountain path they had just gotten past.

She shrieked in surprise, but her voice was drowned by the roaring wind. She tried to concentrate chakra into her feet and hands, so she could stop herself from sliding any farther, but the surface was just too slippery, so that didn't really work. Therefore she tried to raise her head slightly, so she could see where she was slithering to and her eyes widened in shock, as she realized that she was heading towards a bend, meaning at this speed and with her luck, she would most likely just slide directly towards the edge and fall straight into the depth.

…

…

Sasuke had swung around the second he had felt the girl behind him withdraw her hand; now he was sure that something was wrong, but as he tried to ask her what was going on, she was nowhere to be found. He activated his Sharingan and soon perceived the frozen ground – he couldn't believe it; they had been attacked and he hadn't even noticed it.

He let go of Sakura's hand and went right after his team-mate, surfing down the iced path, trying his best not to slip and fall.

Sakura first didn't realize what had happened, she just felt that something was different and it took her a few seconds, until she noticed that Sasuke's hand was missing. Her own hand was so frozen and numb, that it took her some time to become aware of that, but as soon as she did, she tried to grip for it again, but couldn't find it, so she eventually turned around to tell him, that even if he didn't want to hold hands with her, it was the safest thing to do, but she couldn't see him. At first, she thought that the snow storm was just blocking her view, but as she stretched her hand out and searched for him, she just gripped into nothingness, so she came to a stop, causing the two men in front of her to do so as well and motioned them that something was not right. She went closer to them and screamed as loud as she could: "Sasuke is missing!"

Kakashi, had hardly heard her, but he still grasped what had happened since they were now standing so close together, that they were almost forming a small circle which didn't include their two other team-mates, therefore something must have happened to them.

"Where are they?!" He screamed at her, their faces now just a few inches apart, but she just shrugged and shook her head, so he carried on: "When?!"

"I don't know!" Sakura shrieked helplessly "Maybe a minute, maybe more…"

"We have to go right after them!" Naruto hollered and was just about to rush off, when Kakashi gripped him by his collar and pulled him back. "We can't, we have to get out of the snowstorm - they'll be fine!"

"WHAT?! We can't leave them alone! We have to-"  
"No! Because of the storm we wouldn't find them anyway. We are just about five hours away from our destination; we'll seek shelter there and ask them for a search party, they know this area better than we do." Kakashi concluded hoping his students had been able to understand him, but just to be sure, he gripped them by their arms and pulled them after him, so they had no chance to protest any more, even though Naruto still managed to do so pretty well.

"But we have to help them! They might be in danger! We just –"

"Naruto!" The Hatake turned around angrily "I wouldn't leave them behind if I didn't know they'd do fine, but we have our mission and we have to focus on that, now!"

The blonde looked down with a tortured face, weighing his sensei's words, finally deciding that he was probably right: Sasuke sure could look after himself and since he was with Sayuri she should be fine too, even though she could probably manage things on her own as well. There was really no need to worry about them, but if he wouldn't start moving soon, he would probably freeze on the spot, so he looked up again and increased his speed with new enthusiasm. All he wanted right now, was a warm place and some ramen maybe – a search party would probably be more successful than they'd be anyway, he tried to soothe himself, but still turned around every once in a while, still secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of his two lost team-members.

…

…

This wasn't good.

At this rate, she had no more than five seconds to live – she had to come up with something soon, or else it was over. . She turned over onto her belly and gripped into her pockets, taking out two Kunais she tried to ram into the iced floor, with as much force as she could manage, however they hardly got through the thick ice-layer and merely slowed her down a little, but were unable to make her stop sliding. As she was just about a metre away from the edge, she let go of them again and pulled out two new ones, which she tried to smash directly into the un-iced mountain face, the second she slid over the rim.

The first one missed, since she was dashed into the air with a tremendous speed and therefore had problems at hitting the rocks at all, however she could dash the second one into a small ledge and could therefore keep herself from flying off any farther and even though it felt as if the momentum would rip out her arm, she didn't let go of the small dagger, she now owed her life to.

She opened her mouth in a silent scream at the pain that was now running through her whole arm and reached up with her other one too, so she could relieve it a bit. She took a deep breath, trying to calm down a little, since at the moment, her heart was in her mouth and it was pretty hard for her to focus on anything at all. After a few seconds she started moving her feet, searching for something to perch them on, but just stepped into emptiness, so she finally looked around and scanned her surroundings, finding a spacious area with un- frozen -ground just a few metres to her side. She clenched her teeth and started swinging slightly back and forth, until she had gained enough drive to jump off and land more or less on the spot she had predicted, even though not as gracefully as she might have liked.

"Ouch…" she moaned, still behind clenched teeth and looked at her ankle, she had hurt during her 'crash', since it was hard to refer to it as a decent landing… She started healing her foot provisionally and looked up at the place she had just come from, when she heard someone approach her from behind.

"That was a close one…" The red-haired Yuki-nin grinned friendly and jumped off the small cliff, so that he was now standing on the same stage Sayuri was on. "You're very lucky" He slowly walked towards her and reached out his hand to help her up. However the young Kunoichi just eyed him suspiciously and made no move to respond to his gesture.

"Uh… afraid of me?" He asked smirking and pointed a finger at his chest. "There's no need to. Really … are you hurt?"

"No." she finally stated, still ignoring the man's outstretched hand but struggling to her feet by herself, causing the Yuki-nin to lift up his arms in resignation.

"Tell me - what is someone like you doing at a place like this?" He asked as casual as possible.

"Wandering…" she muttered after a while; something about this guy was wrong – especially that ever-present but obviously fake grin on his face bothered her a lot, she sure wouldn't let her guard down and risk the mission because of someone like him.

"Wandering? During a snowstorm? You know I actually thought you were a nice girl –" his eyes hardened and the grin finally vanished from his face "But I guess I've been wrong about you, because I hate liars."

Sayuri jumped up as she felt something come at her from behind, but never lifted her eyes from the man in front of her. Her ankle slowed her down a little, but she was still able to dodge the Kunais, someone had thrown at her from the rear and leaped to the side, bringing as much space between herself and her attackers as possible.

She warily eyed the two men that were now slowly walking towards her, with boastful grins on their faces and went into a fighting stance.

"We'll make it short and painless, if you say please…" The red-haired one smiled smugly, and was slightly irritated, as the now cornered girl in front of him, returned his grin almost equally arrogant. He raised an eyebrow slightly at the change in her countenance and twitched in shock, as a raven haired man suddenly appeared right in front of her.

Stunned by his incredible speed, the Yuki-nins jumped back a few metres, the cocky grins vanishing from their faces, before the red-head asked with a furious voice: "Who the hell are you?"

The Uchiha didn't respond to this question but unsheathed his Katana and pointed it at the Shinobi in front of him.

"Fine then…" The Yuki-nin grinned with new courage before he stated:

"Hyoton, Fubuki no Jutsu."

The next second, the snow storm increased again, blocking the view of the Konoha-nins almost completely, while the Yuki-nins didn't seem to be bothered by it at all.

Sayuri closed her eyes and threw a few Kunais at the ninjas in front of her, but those were able to dodge them and threw some on their own, however Sayuri could fend them off too and just a moment later, she heard her team-mate next to her mutter: "Katon, Gokakyu no Jutsu!"

A huge fireball now rushed towards the two enemies, but was repelled by a Water-Jutsu performed by the white-haired ninja.

"It won't work like this…" Sayuri murmured and dashed to the side the next instant, pushing Sasuke out of the way as a bunch of ice-kunais came flying at him.

Instead of thanking her, he just grunted disapprovingly, indicating pretty clearly that he didn't need her help.

Sayuri just rolled her eyes in response, even though she knew he couldn't see it and concentrated on her own opponent, the water-using-guy, again, but this one merely stood there and just watched the fight of his partner, obviously not taking his own opponent for serious.

'Good' she thought and formed a few handsigns, apparently unnoticed by her enemy.

With a smirk, she slowly disappeared into the ground, only to reappear behind her opponent a few seconds later, already with a raised Kunai. But when she tried to stab the Yuki-nin, he turned into water, which spread around her feet and ran up her legs immediately and before she could get away it started freezing and trapped her. With a gleeful grin, the white haired man emerged from behind a rock and walked towards her, slowly almost mockingly drawing a short sword, hardly more than twice the size of a normal Kunai.

This was bad. Her feet and the lower part of her legs were frozen, so trying to break free from the ice didn't work and since he also had the advantage of apparently having a clear view, throwing Shurikens at him would probably be pointless too and she couldn't expect Sasuke to help her either, since he obviously had enough trouble with his own fight.

She was on her own now and if she couldn't think of anything soon, she was already as good as dead. Damn - if she was Naruto, she could just create a few Shadow clones to get her out of this situation; Sakura would just punch herself free from the ice and Sasuke could use one of his Katon Jutsus to melt it – so much to them, but what about her? The guy was now just about two metres away from her and could clearly see the panic rising in the girl's eyes, causing his factitious grin to grow even wider.

"Scared of me?" He smirked coldly and lifted his weapon, already figuring out where he would attack her, by marking the places in the air in a playful manner that didn't really seem to match his character.

"No." Was all she replied, before she lifted her hands to form a few hand signs and in the next instant, countless butterflies appeared, bathing the whole area in a radiant purple light, before they started flying towards the Yuki-nin covering his eyes and flying into his mouth, trying to choke him. He started to slash around himself and shielded his face with his arms, while Sayuri leaned to the front, as far away as she could manage and placed an explosive tag on the ground, she ignited as soon as she was standing again.

…

…

Meanwhile Sasuke was busy with his own opponent – fighting without using his Sharingan was hard enough, but fighting without being able to use his eyes at all was even harder; especially since his opponent was a rather experienced fighter and he knew how to make use of all the advantages this situation gave him.

This was going to be a tough fight – if he was alone, he could've just attacked the whole area with a huge Chidori, but since he didn't even have the slightest idea where exactly his team-mate was at the moment, he had no choice but to think of something else.

At the moment he was busy with trying to dodge his opponent's ice-kunais; to his dismay not as successfully as usually. He had already taken one into his upper-arm and one had grazed his rips as well, but luckily his wounds weren't really serious and didn't affect his already inferior situation too much.

He concentrated and sensed that his opponent was somewhere in front of him, but he couldn't tell for sure where exactly he was, until he felt that he was moving into his direction. The raven-haired man tightened the grip around his Katana, ready to strike at any moment, but all the same careful not to show the Yuki-nin that he vaguely knew about his position, when he suddenly heard an explosion, closely followed by a restrained female scream.

He jerked his head into the direction, the noise had come from, before he exhaled noisily, as a sharp object was thrown right into his shoulder. He cursed himself, for letting himself be distracted, but the next second a fist was slammed straight into his stomach and this time he couldn't breathe at all, but was thrown back by the impact and landed on the ground, just a foot away from the edge of the mountain. The red-haired Yuki-nin let out a crazy laugh to celebrate his triumph, even loud enough to drown out the sounds of the surroundings and started walking towards his prostrated opponent.

…

…

Sayuri who had just been able to free herself from the ice, even though her legs had suffered from it pretty much, was just about to attack her still distracted opponent, when she heard some vicious laughter and turned into the direction it came from. She started concentrating, until she could make out Sasuke's curled up figure, lying at the feet of the red-haired Yuki-nin, completely motionless.

"Is this all Konoha's got?" The redhead snorted scornfully and kicked the Uchiha again, straight into the guts, causing him to skid even closer towards the cliff.

"NO!" Sayuri screamed in shock and rushed towards him, at once, completely forgetting about her own opponent, who was still busy fending off her butterflies.

Sasuke's body had just started gliding from the edge, but she made it in time to grip his hand and keep him from falling into the depth entirely.

A feeling of déjà vu overcame her; it was exactly like the time when she had seen him again for the first time, just with reversed rolls. This time it was her supposed to keep him from falling, however she managed hardly better than he had back then. She had to put a lot of effort into just holding him, but there was no chance she could pull him up and he seemed to have trouble with just keeping his consciousness, so he didn't seem to be in any condition to help her out as well. She focused so vigorously on not letting her team-mate fall that she had nearly forgotten about the Yuki-nin standing right beside her, looking down at her with a wide sneer plastered on his face, until he eventually piped up: "How moving, it would be a shame to see this happy couple separated…"

He pondered loudly, a sardonic grin rising on his features. Sayuri turned her head slightly into his direction, trying to stay focused, however her eyes widened slightly as she saw that the red-haired-man was now standing right behind her. He lifted his foot slightly and kicked her straight into the butt, causing both Sasuke and her to fall from the cliff straight towards the torrent that sprawled at the foot of the mountain.

Another déjà vu moment; she thought as she pulled the raven-haired man closer to her own body and they both fell into the depth.

…

…


	29. Bad manners

**29. Bad manners**

"Hey – what's this? – right over there!" Naruto pointed his finger to the front, since he didn't want to remove his warming arms from his body. The blizzard had slackened a little, however it hadn't entirely stopped yet and it was still freezing cold, so as the remains of Team7 finally reached their destination, the three shinobi felt like ice-blocks.

"This must be the Lord's residence." Kakashi muttered, shielding his eyes with his hands, so the snow flakes wouldn't cloud his sight more than they already did.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" The blonde urged his team-mates and started rushing towards the huge building in front of them.

"Wait!" Sakura screamed and ran after him, while the Hatake just grinned a little and walked after his students in his usual pace, apparently not minding the storm and the icy temperatures. His team however had almost reached the portal by now, and even increased their speed, already seeing a hot bath, a cozy bed, delicious and above all plenty of food in front of their inner eyes, but as they were almost there, some guards jumped into their way and pointed their weapons at them.

"What the –" Naruto shrieked indignantly, but was interrupted as he felt a sharp blade being placed at his throat.

"Wait - there must be a mistake, we –" Sakura tried to clarify the situation, but was forced to shut up by a lance, appearing right at the spot between her eyes, as well. So they just stood there, surrounded by the heavily armed, but apparently mute and deaf guards, until Kakashi finally showed up and started explaining: "We are ninjas from Konoha; we have been requested by Lord Kihimi Jousuke, to quench the revolt and act as his bodyguards." He looked at the sentry and handed them a scroll, which caused them to finally let down their weapons.

"Jus' three?" One of them mumbled inarticulately behind his thick scarf that covered half of his face, obviously offended that their problems were taken so lightly by the Fire Country.

"Will you lead us in, now?" The Jounin enquired, earning a deadly glare from the man in front of him.

"Follow me." He nodded, his voice almost dripping with despise, but he nevertheless opened the huge gate and led the way in.

The Konoha-nins exchanged a couple of insecure glances, before they started to go after him and entered a great, completely white corridor, which led, after taking a few bends, into an equally white hall. The three Shinobi looked a little lost, in this huge and almost empty room – empty in the sense of unfurnished and deserted as well. The only furnishing was at the front of the room, on a small platform and consisted merely of a pompous throne-like chair and a small table – both completely white, except for a few silvery ornaments, which embellished their edges and concealed a bit of their sharpness. They stood there for quite a while, freezing almost as much as they had outside, since they were still wearing their almost iced clothes and their circulatory systems were starting to collapse, given that they weren't moving any longer…

"Where the hell is he?!" Naruto finally lost his temper and started looking around wildly. "After all the trouble we went through to get here and he doesn't even show up? That teme if he gets here I'll –"  
"You won't do any such thing." The Hatake corrected him in a matter-of-fact voice, as if he was trying to explain something self-evident to a small child. "He is our client and we have to act on his will – and if it's his will to let us wait, then that's how it is."

"But what about Sayuri and Sasuke? They are still out there; we have to send someone to search for them!"

"He's right, they'll freeze to death if they stay out there much longer." Sakura agreed, but then they heard a noise, coming from the right, so they all turned their heads into that direction and witnessed how a door was finally opened and a swanky dressed man followed by some guards, amongst which was also the grumpy one with the scarf that had led them in, entered the room.

Without even looking at them, he went straight to his throne and two of the guards placed themselves at his sides, while the others positioned themselves at the side entrances, apparently a practised and often repeated procedure, judging from the accuracy and naturalness of their movements.

As soon as he had sat down, Jousuke looked at them – in a rather uninterested way for a man that had so urgently demanded their help and finally raised his voice in a bored and almost sarcastic tone that matched his expression perfectly: "So, you are Konoha's response to a violent riot against the government o the Land of Snow? Interesting…" He raised an eyebrow sceptically, apparently regarding them as a bad joke.

"You shouldn't be distracted by our small number; our five-person-team is absolutely capable of handling your business." Kakashi explained calmly, casting a side glance at Naruto every now and then, since he seemed ready to explode.

"_Five_ Persons?"

"Yes we are five, but we got separated on our way over the mountains – you have to send a search party to get them!" Naruto explained in an urging voice, wildly gesticulating with his arms all the time.

"A search party?" Jousuke grinned amusedly "When Konoha thinks that the five of you are skilled enough to deal with our problems, those two should be more than just capable to cope with their situation all by themselves…"

"But they –" Naruto took a step forward, but was stopped, as Kakashi held an arm in front of his chest and the Lord carried on: "We wouldn't be able to do much anyway, I've cleared my residence of all untrustworthy individuals and I sure won't risk sending some of my best men into that blizzard, just to help some foreign-ninjas, who, as you pointed out, probably won't even need the help, anyway."

"YOU –" Naruto growled infuriated, not minding Kakashi's weak attempts to hold him back, but once again the Lord interrupted him in an indifferent tone: "No more about this. I think I've made myself clear. So now about you; you look more than tired, I guess it'd be pointless to burden you with all the complicated details of this mission right away… I propose you take a rest first and we'll talk things over, first thing tomorrow morning – Hideki, show them their rooms."

"Hai, Jousuke-sama." The guard to his right bowed down and walked to the door they had all come in through, not looking at the Konoha-nins, but obviously expecting them to follow him.

…

…

"Man… have those guys ever heard of something like manners? We've come all the way here to help them and they treat us like crap!" Naruto started boxing his pillow as soon as they were alone in their room.

"They are paying clients, they can treat us however they like, we are just here to do our mission and that's what we should concentrate on." Kakashi tried calming his student, but was hardly successful.

"How can you stay so damned calm?! Sayuri and Sasuke are out there in the storm, all by themselves and they won't lift a finger to help them – and what about that 'you're too tired to understand all the difficult details' –" Naruto imitated him, clearly furious "who the hell does he think we are? That rude bastard, if I could just get hold of him, I'd –"

"Naruto-kun, just calm down." Kakashi sighed exhaustedly "It won't change anything to complain now, it neither helps Sasuke and Sayuri, nor does it help us. So just go to sleep now; tomorrow will be tough as it is and he was probably right, we really do have a hard journey behind us, therefore we should use all the time we have to rest and recover."

"Tze…" Naruto still mumbled some curses under his breath, but walked obediently to his bed and finally laid down - at least for a few seconds, since he was still so agitated that he just couldn't keep still for long.

"Naruto – cut it out." His Sensei, who had already crawled into his bed, sighed in annoyance and pulled the covers over his head.  
"Damn, I can't – I'll go and talk to someone who isn't all indifferent about this!" He jumped up and departed the room, walking in a resolute pace to the end of the corridor, where he knocked at a door while he already pulled it open and entered the room.

"Sakura-chan" Can you bel-" Naruto shouted, but stopped in his tracks as he realized that Sakura was obviously just getting dressed. "Umm… sorry Sakura-"

"AHH!" The pinkette shrieked hysterically and put on a bath gown with one hand, while she used the other one to grip for anything in her reach, she could throw at the perverse voyeur.

"Ugh, no Sakura-chan! Stop – stop! My eyes are closed - they are closed!" Naruto pulled one of his arms over his head and groped his way through the room with the other one, trying to escape her assaults, but the pink-haired Kunoichi was impressively unerring and extremely aggressive, therefore the blonde was soon all black and blue and battered.

"You filthy pervert - what the hell are you doing in my room?!" She screamed outraged, but had at least stopped throwing things at him, but that was probably because there was nothing left in her reach anymore.

"Hey, I knocked! How should I know that you were running around all naked, huh?!"

"I wasn't naked you baka!" She pulled the sleeves of her terrycloth bathrobe up and started doubling her fists, while a threatening expression contorted her actually pretty face.

"How should I know? I didn't see anything…" He tried to soothe her, before she was close enough to hit him again.

"You didn't?" She asked completely calm and sweet now, just as if her previous outburst had never happened. "Oh, why did you come here then?"

"Huh?" Naruto was a little baffled that Sakura had apparently really thought he had just come here to catch a glimpse of her, but then he recovered himself and started: "Ah - I just wanted to let off some steam, but I guess your sudden attack has done the job pretty well…"

The Uzumaki scratched his head sheepishly, but winced as he touched one of the many bumps that were now adorning his skull. "Ouch… if _you_ won't kick those rebels' asses, than I don't know who will." He grinned bitterly and received a light smile by his team-mate in return.

"Of course I will!" She stated proudly and winked at him with a cheeky grin on her face.

"Could you…" Naruto looked at his bruises, before he shot an expectant glance into the direction of the Medic-nin.

"No way. You deserve that." She said strictly and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Ah, Sakura-chan, you can't do that!" He pleaded desperately until he saw a bold grin appear on the pinkette's face.

"Allright, but just this once." She smirked and started healing her friend's injuries.

"You think they are okay?" Sakura asked, after she had finished her treatment.

"Of course they are! I mean, you know them - Sasuke has lived through years with Orochimaru, compared to that, this situation should be a piece of cake for him and Sayuri is pretty clever, too, she should find a way to get them here safely soon."

"Yeah, you're right, they are both pretty good."

"I know, I know… but this Lord or whatever he is – I've never seen a ruder guy than him, believe it!"

"Yeah, he really was kind of disrespectful, but he is probably just stressed, the whole situation is certainly not easy for him…" Sakura tried to defend their client, but Naruto just rolled his eyes: "So what? We've gone through difficult times, too, but have we started acting like him? No. So if his only way to get through these times lies in degrading his fellow people, than he can't be a strong man."

"Well, no one said he was, but he's our client and we have to help him, no matter how he behaves… and it's not like he's the first rude client we've ever had; just think of Shion for example, she was a pain in the neck at the beginning too, but later turned out to be a nice girl, right? Maybe Jousuke is like this too…" Sakura pondered loudly while she strived through the huge room, which was, same as their room, filled with at least fifteen beds; it was obvious that they really had expected more than just five shinobi to come to their aid.

"Tze, you sound just like Kakashi! I'll go to bed now, goodnight Sakura-chan, see you tomorrow." He waved and slowly walked towards the door.

"Goodnight, Naruto-kun – ah, and if you should ever show up uninvited in my room again, I'll beat you to a bloody pulp. Okay? So then sleep well and don't let the bedbugs bite." Sakura closed her eyes and smiled innocently, unaware of the cold shiver that ran down the blonde boy's spine after her words.

"Ahaa - I see…" He put a forced smile on his face and rushed out of the room as fast as he could, just to be sure she wouldn't rethink her decision and implement her threats just now.

…

…

It was cold, freezing cold and the biting wind roaring through the air cut into her skin like numerous small daggers, but despite the icy temperature her skin felt as if it was on fire, her whole body was aching and she seemed to be lying on something hard, however she couldn't tell exactly what it was yet, but it was pretty uncomfortable. Everything was dark, except for some flickering light she could even perceive with her eyes closed. The moment she tried to open them however, a sharp pain ran through her head, so she pressed them shut again and tried to remember what had just happened. It took her a few seconds, until she was finally able to recall the previous events; she had been with Sasuke and they had fought against two Yuki-nins before they'd fallen from the mountain edge – that was about it.

But where was she now?

Had they been captured?

She still felt fairly dazed, but nevertheless tried to open her eyes again and much to her relief, this time it worked without any problems.

It seemed as if she was lying on a thin blanket on the ground; a rocky one and just about a metre in front of her was a blazing bonfire – the source of the guttering light. She stared at it for quite a while and then tried to shift her position, so she could get a better view of the cave, she was apparently in. It was just then, that she realized that there was something warm pressed against her back and on her waist too. She turned around slowly, but that little movement was enough to cause a whimper to escape her lips and she twitched slightly as she felt the throbbing in her head grow more intensive once again. Therefore she gritted her teeth, as she finally rolled on her back and turned her head to the side.

Her eyes widened in shock, as she saw that Sasuke was lying right next to her, pressing her body tightly to his own, while he was apparently sleeping. Even though he had his eyes closed, she thought he looked at least as exhausted as she herself felt. No wonder - as far as she could tell, he had been wounded pretty badly, during their fight earlier this day and then he must have also been the one to drag her out of the river and carry her into this cave, despite all his injuries…

He had saved her again.

With tired eyes, she had problems to keep open, Sayuri scrutinized his sleeping face; she had noticed before how different he looked when he was asleep; his features were almost soft and peaceful, completely different from the cold and emotionless mask, he was usually wearing.

She let a hand wander through her hair and frowned as she realized that a couple of ice-crystals were sticking to a few strands of them, but since she couldn't change that now, she just dropped her arm again and listened to her team-mate's calm, rhythmic breathing, which caused her eyes to fall shut as well. However before they did, she peripherally perceived his chest – his bare chest. Her eyes flew open at once and she started blushing slightly, before she demonstratively closed them again and turned her head back up, pretending as if she hadn't seen anything at all.

'What an awkward situation' she thought, but that was nothing compared to how she felt, when she eventually looked down at herself and realized that she wasn't wearing much more, either. She shrieked appalled and winced, since the sound of her own high-pitched and yet hoarse scream tortured her ears, before she moved a bit farther away from the black-haired boy and grabbed the covers of the one sleeping bag, they were both lying in and pulled them closer over her body, waking her team-mate as he perceived that the heat-source next to him had vanished and by the noise she was making.

An exhausted groan escaped his lips; he would have liked to dwell in the land of sleep far longer, but as it seemed that wish wasn't granted to him. Sayuri, who had noticed that he was awake now, took the opportunity to snap at him at once, her face, much to the Uchiha's amusement, as red as a tomato.

"What the hell did you do with my clothes you pervy jerk?!"

She knew that this wasn't really the way to talk to someone who had just saved your life, and Sayuri regretted it later on, but at that moment she was just so upset, that she didn't give much thought to it.

The Uchiha just rolled his eyes in response, before he started to explain in a quiet, worn-out voice: "If you had stayed in these wet clothes you'd be dead by now and bare skin is a better heat-conductor."

"Oh…" She hadn't even thought about that, even though she knew exactly that he had pulled her out of the water and that there were subfreezing temperatures out there – well, in here too – her hair was the best proof of that.

"But still…" She pouted stubbornly and turned her back to the Uchiha who consequently let his hands drop from her waist, hiding another red shimmer that had appeared on her cheeks – she wasn't good at all in dealing with such awkward and almost intimate situations; that was clear.

She raised her knees up, until they were right in front of her chest and slung her arms around them, trying to provide as small a target to the cold as possible, and even though she was lying right beside the fire, she still couldn't keep some violent shudders from running through her whole body – she knew that her team-mate had been right about that heat-conductor-thing, but she was just way to obstinate to admit that.

'Awesome' the Uchiha thought, while he stared at the back of the dark-haired girl. Just because she had to act like a child, he was forced to freeze now; and not only him, from how she was shaking he could tell that she wasn't doing any better, too.

"Damn it…" after just about two minutes Sayuri turned around again with her hands covering her chest and looked sceptically at the Uchiha, who just raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"You won't do any weird stuff, right?" She scrutinized his face thoroughly, but he just rolled his eyes again. "Tze…"

That question was actually superfluous, she knew that Sasuke wasn't that kind of guy, but she still wanted to be sure, before she again nestled herself tentatively against his warm, athletic body and hesitantly buried her head in his chest, while she registered how he again slung his arms around her.

He could still feel her trembling and so he pulled her closer to his body and even though he could feel her stiffen up, she didn't comment on his actions again and just submitted to them, especially since she was the one who actually benefited from them.

Eventually the Uchiha closed his eyes again, ready to go back to sleep, since he wasn't freezing anymore now, but this time, he couldn't just switch off as easily as before, probably because he wasn't as devastated as he'd been right after he'd brought them here and he just couldn't get the fight from earlier out of his head.

How could he have lost to someone like them?

They weren't exactly weak opponents, but they weren't particularly skilled one's either. One of them had specialised on water-element Jutsus, while the other used ice-ones – no big deal. Their only advantage had been the snow storm, but still that didn't explain why he had done so bad… even Sayuri had done better than him, she had her Doujutsu though – if you could call it like that; but he had the Sharingan after all – the mightiest Doujutsu there was, but it had been completely useless during that fight. Was he really so dependent on his blood trait, that he couldn't win a fight without it? He refused to believe that – he had never accepted to be dependent on anyone or anything; that was one of the reasons why he had left Konoha back then – he had cut off all the bonds, so he could become stronger. Today had shown once again, that bonds made him weak; if he had been alone, he wouldn't have had any problems in dealing with these guys, but since he had fought with a comrade, he'd been forced to act considerately and in the end he'd been beaten.

Still engaged in his thoughts, he lowered his head and looked at the girl in his arms.

It was her fault he had lost, but then again she had done her best to safe him, even though she had failed miserably, but she had tried anyway – not that it would change anything, but still…

His train of thoughts was interrupted, when he felt how his team-mate hesitantly moved her head up, before she muttered softly: "Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn." Her misty blue eyes met his cold obsidian ones shyly, before she turned them down again and carried on mumbling into his chest: "Thank you for saving me… again…" She didn't really expect a response to her statement, but she was still waiting for him to react at least in some way – even if it was just one of his characteristic grunts or something… There was an endlessly long seeming silence, in which Sayuri was reluctant to look up at the clan-heir again, even though she could feel him staring at her.

He thought about her words: '_again_' - she was obviously referring to the event when he had saved her from committing suicide. Since she had thanked him for being alive, did that mean she had abandoned her self-destructive tendencies? He remembered that he'd been surprised as he had seen her there on the cliffs, later he hadn't even bothered to think about it any longer - he had way more important things to concentrate on, he couldn't afford being distracted by something like that… However now his curiosity was revived again, at least to some extend and he was sure that right now, she would probably answer all his questions, probably even more. He knew how talkative women could be and so instead of asking her why she had done it and risking being told her whole personal history, he merely muttered: "Don't mind."

Sayuri twitched slightly, as the silence was finally broken – well if you could call it a silence, since there was still the spluttering of the fire and the not really quiet whooshing of the blizzard outside, but due to habituation they hardly took notice of that anymore, however a faint smile appeared on her lips, even though it wasn't able to reach the rest of her face, since the coldness was completely numbing her. This response was just so like him… at times he was a complete mystery to her and then at other times he was just like an open book.

Once again the young Kunoichi leaned closer to the Uchiha-heir and felt him tighten his grip, too, as if it was something completely natural they had been doing for all their lives… but they hadn't, in fact, she had never been this close to anyone before; she could feel the smooth texture of his bare skin touching her own; could hear his heart beating rhythmically, almost lulling her; inhaled his pleasant, manly scent and his even breathing, grazing her neck, gave her goosebumps. She shouldn't have thought about all these things, because now she was starting to feel terribly self-conscious; at this point she watched her every movement, trying not to do anything inappropriate, especially considering that they were only covered by a thin blanket and the additional sleeping bag he had spread above them and the previous pleasant silent was now beginning to appear rather tense to her and she felt the sudden urge to break it.

"How long will we have to stay in here?" A stupid question, since she knew that they'd have to outwait the storm and rest before they could resume their journey, but it was the first thing she could come up with – she cursed herself for her nervousness…

"Once the storm abates." He confirmed her assumption, sounding rather absent-minded. He obviously wasn't interested in any conversation, not that he had ever been, but still it made Sayuri feel quite doleful. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep again, but was still too tense to calm down yet and besides, she couldn't shake off the feeling that he was again staring at her, probably just her imagination, but she just couldn't relax until she knew for sure, so she directed her eyes upwards, trying to move as little as possible, since she didn't want to attract his attention, however as her eyes finally wandered over his face and reached his eyes, they were met by his blank coal orbs – even though on second sight, she noticed that they weren't as blank as they usually were; she could see something in them, but had no idea what exactly it was…

So he really was staring at her.

She felt fairly queasy now and even more self-conscious than before - if that was possible at all, but she nevertheless tried to keep the eye contact and raised a brow quizzically, waiting for him to explain his behaviour, but he just closed his eyes pensively and drew a deep breath. Her eyes still rested on his face, holding a puzzled expression in them, when he opened his eyes again and directed an ambiguous glance at her, before she could feel how he loosened his grip around her waist again and the places that had been warmed by his arms before were now offered for the cold to seize them. She was kind of startled by his movement and drew a deep breath, as she felt him tightly grip her upper arms with both his hands, before he rolled over her, so that he was now lying above her, staring down at her with an unreadable expression.

"S-Sasuke-kun, what –" she stuttered, finally breathing out again, while she tried to lift up her hands and place them between their bodies, to keep some distance to him. However he just let his hands wander down her arms, until he reached her wrists and pressed them on the ground beside her face. He saw how her eyes widened in shock and felt her protest against his iron grip, while her heart was beating violently against her ribcage, but he just more or less ignored it and slowly lowered his head to hers.

"Don't" she whimpered and turned her head to the side, exposing her neck and her rapidly throbbing artery to him. He softly placed his lips on her collarbone, registering with the same motionless expression as always how she twitched again and slowly stopped protesting, until she was just lying rigidly underneath him. He slowly almost cautiously ran the tip of his nose along her neck, inhaling her captivating scent, until he reached her chin and nudged it gently. Since she still had her head turned to the side, he kissed the corner of her mouth, before he finally lifted his head up to look into her eyes.

To his surprise, she was looking almost terrified, staring into some far away corner of the cave and he couldn't really tell by the dim light, but he was sure that her eyes were kind of watery. Pushing his body up a little by supporting his weight with his elbows, he released his grip on her hands and wiped a strand of her silky, violet-hair back, before he laid a palm to the side of her face and gently pushed it upwards, forcing her to look at him directly.

This action finally seemed to awake the girl from her trance; she shot a confused but also guilty and somewhat hurt glance into his direction, before she rolled to the side, bringing some space between them and raised up her knees again, wrapping her arms tightly around them, just as she had done before.

…

…


	30. Questions and more questions

**30.**** Questions and more questions…**

The pale light of the waxing moon on a late winter evening shone through the panorama windows of a small untidy bureau and illuminated the faces of four shinobi that were eagerly trying to look past the ridiculously high piles of documents, behind which the person that had summoned them was seated.

"Since we didn't hear from you earlier - am I right to assume that you have not been able to track down the Akatsuki?" The Godaime conjectured while she supported her hands on the overloaded desk and pulled herself up from her chair, in order to face her visitors.

Those just nodded gravely in response and watched how the Hokage turned her back on them and walked towards the windows, from where she gazed at Konoha's marketplace that was slowly beginning to empty.

"We've inspected all the places the Akatsukis have been spotted at; from the traces we've found we can confirm that they've been travelling as a pair and the information we've been able to gather, give reason to believe that one of them is the former partner of Sasori of the Red Sand, Deidara from Iwa-Gakure, the man that had also been able to capture the Kazekage. We don't have any information on his new partner, though, except that he is wearing a mask that covers his entire face." Yamato, the momentary leader of Team Kurenai, reported factually, and observed how the blonde woman turned around to them again, even though her clouded gaze implied, that she didn't really look at them, but was busy thinking things over.

"Deidara? Impossible – he is dead! He blew himself up after encountering Team Kakashi and Team Gai. Are you absolutely sure that it was him?" Tsunade enquired in a faraway-voice, still staring holes into space.

"We're not – it's what we concluded from the reports of the eyewitnesses; however those weren't too extensive and sometimes even differed a bit from each other, so it's all just speculation…" Yamato explained, no trace of disappointment or any other emotion audible in his voice.

"Is that it?" The Hokage asked after she had strived through her office for quite a while, all the time tipping her index-finger against her chin uneasily.

"Not at all!" Kiba threw in, not leaving his team-leader enough time to reply himself. "We noticed two strange things" He implied cryptically while pointing two fingers into the air, leaving a dramatic pause after his words to raise the tension, until the honey-eyed woman finally became impatient.

"So?! Go ahead!" She ordered him sharply, but much to Kiba's dismay, Shino took the wind out of his sails.

"The traces we found vanished completely at the border to the fire country; neither Akamaru's nose, nor my insects or Hinata's Byakugan were able to detect them any longer. We've scouted the adjacent regions but couldn't pick it up again."

After Shino had finished, Tsunade nodded in comprehension, before she asked in a calm voice: "And what's the second thing?"

Kiba had already opened his mouth to reply, when he was again pre-empted - this time by Yamato though, and therefore just let his mouth fall shut again, growling in chorus with Akamaru, while crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"We started our inspections with the places located at the outside of the Land of Thunder and then made our way to those at the inside in a straight-line. After we've checked on all the places we've known of, we decided to pass through them again on our way back and as we did, we noticed a new trace at every single one of the spots we came across; one that has definitely not been there at the time of our first visitation.

"A new trace?" The Godaime questioned sceptically and scrutinized the four shinobi in front of her.

"Yes. A female one – that's what Kiba-kun smelled and Shino's bugs also found a red hair that probably belonged to her…" Hinata explained feebly and looked shyly down to her feet.

"So you assume that you have been followed?"

"Absolutely!" Kiba exclaimed, as he finally got the chance to speak again. "We've been backtracking it, but the traces scattered into all directions and we weren't able to tell any longer which of them was the right one."  
"First Akatsuki and then another shinobi that is skilled enough to conceal her traces completely…" Tsunade pondered aloud, while she seated herself on her desk, not minding the papers that hence started sailing to the floor, since they hardly stood out of the rest of the chaos dominating the room.

"We already informed the ANBUs guarding the borders about the present situation and told them to be on the lookout for a red-haired female shinobi… even though I doubt they'll achieve anything…" Yamato informed the Fifth, who then, still engrossed in her thoughts ran a hand through her hair, sighing in frustration, before she directed a clear glance at the people in front of her and stated: "Allright, you are dismissed then, but make sure to be on call…"

Watching them leave, Tsunade went back to her chair and let herself fall into it again.

First Akatsuki and then this mysterious woman… Things were taking one new turn after the other and she didn't even have the slightest idea what they were about, she just knew it wasn't good…

…

…

He still looked at her in puzzlement, what was wrong with this girl now?

He couldn't get her face out of his mind; that inscrutable expression – she had looked as if he had done who knows what to her – completely exaggerated. The raven-haired boy pondered as he stared absently into the fire, which was slowly extinguishing, when he was suddenly hit by a new realization:

He had just been rejected.

That had never happened before; Karin hadn't turned him down and Sakura sure wouldn't have… He had never given much thought to it and never really cared about it, but up to now he had never even considered that there might be a girl that didn't want him. As he'd still been in Konoha, almost all the girls in the village had been chasing after him, even though he hadn't been interested in any of them and hadn't bothered to conceal that as well, and the few women he had met while he was still with Orochimaru hadn't been that much different either – so how come she was?

What had gotten into him anyway? He still didn't really know yet; in one second he had been thinking about the fight and in the next second his thoughts had trailed off to her. He didn't have any feelings for her, he was sure of that, but she wasn't indifferent to him either. During the few weeks he had stayed in Konoha, the bond with his old team had become stronger again, he hadn't noticed that before, but the previous events had made it clear to him. But even if that was the case, that still didn't explain his behaviour.

It was just lust. He couldn't think of any other explanation; he was just a man after all and he was lying right next to a fairly attractive and above all, naked woman. And after she had huddled herself against him the entire time, it wasn't really surprising that he had behaved the way he had; just because he wasn't acting out his feelings publicly – well not secretly either – didn't mean he had none, even though he would never admit that openly… However her reaction had cooled him down again pretty quickly. He felt weird though, there was no point in denying that; being rejected hadn't hurt his feelings, obviously since he didn't want to come on to her or something anyway, but being rejected sure had grated on his ego… Good for him that his ego was big enough to get over this whole thing without sustaining any lasting damage.

…

…

The young Kunoichi slowly cast down her eyes and gazed through half-closed lids at the fire in front of her. Even though she was lying only a metre away from the flames, the heat still didn't reach up to her and she was again starting to freeze, although she hardly took notice of it. Faint vapour emerged, every time she exhaled and clouded her vision, but since her gaze wasn't directed at anything in particular, it didn't really bother her.

It was always the same; each time someone got close to her, she just screwed up. She had actually liked the feeling of being embraced by him; she had felt a little awkward, but comfortable all the same and somehow… protected, but then something in her mind had just snapped and she had panicked. Just as always. She didn't understand it, but she just couldn't do anything about it. When she had realized that she couldn't free herself from his grip she had just totally lost it; so many thoughts had come crushing at her simultaneously, so many possibilities of what she could have done in that situation, ranging from some happily-ever-after to some doomsday-like scenarios; she had been flooded by so many sugary, twisted and above all unrealistic pictures that she'd had no chance of organizing them and in the end she had been so overwhelmed that she hadn't been able to do a thing… It was hard to explain, but it didn't matter now anyway, it had happened again and even though it was damn frustrating, she had to live with it, but still this whole situation confused her.

He had kissed her.

She didn't understand why, but that didn't change the fact that he had. Well and then she had lost her nerves and had repelled him. She felt kind of bad for that; it was like the first time she had seen him open up to someone and she had rejected him, even though she hadn't even meant to do it… great.

She was still lying there, completely motionless except for some occasional tremors that shook her body violently, engaged in thinking about his past behaviour; about the day he had saved her and the time they'd shared a room until her mind ran through the recent events. He had definitely behaved differently towards her than he had, before he had left Konoha; there was no doubt about that, but did that mean anything?

She hoped she hadn't hurt his feelings; she wanted to apologize to him and try to explain herself, but then she didn't understand her behaviour herself and had no idea what this whole thing had meant to him anyway and she didn't want to make a fool out of herself… Kind of arrogant to believe that he really did have feelings for her, considering how many girls were after him… she was no better than any of the other girls in Konoha, so why should he pick her of all people - most likely not because he liked her, but because she had just been there, just that simple. They've been lying in a very intimate position and she had felt fairly attracted to him, too, well actually she'd been so flustered that she hadn't even been able to hear herself think; so why should he do any better? - Admittedly he wasn't as easy to be discomfited as she was and she had never even seen him so much as blush about something, but just because he didn't show his feelings didn't mean he didn't have any – that was simply impossible. So to him, it was most likely just lust – no need to make a great fuss about it, but still she felt kind of awkward now; she just had no idea how to deal with him from now on…

God how she hated this! Best was just to outwait his behaviour, if he behaved like always, which means, if he went back to mainly ignoring her and treating her the way you'd treat a stranger, she would just do the same and everything would be fine – they'd just never talk about it again and forget it had ever happened. That was probably the best thing to do…

With this thought she finally set an end to her reflecting and closed her eyes completely. She was still so exhausted and especially churned up, that she fell asleep faster than she had thought, same as the man next to her, who had also decided on not wasting any more thoughts on the recent events…

…

…

It was still early in the morning – or other people would call it late at night, when a blonde ninja was woken up, by some persistent hammering on the door of the room he shared with his other male team-member.

He mumbled some unintelligible stuff into his pillow, not even thinking about leaving his warm and cozy bed, when he heard how the door was finally opened by his likewise exhausted Sensei.

"What is it?" The Hatake asked the cross-looking perturbator drowsily.

"We are not paying you to sleep. Get up now! You'll get a short breakfast and after that you'll receive all the details concerning your mission." The man cast a disapproving glance at the still sleeping blonde ninja, before he turned around with a snort and took off.

The Hatake sighed exhaustedly, before he turned around and looked at his student. "Naruto, get up, we're leaving."

"Justa minit…" he babbled, pulling the covers over his head and before he even noticed what had happened, he was lying on the floor – completely blanket-less.

"Huh?" He looked around wildly, before he caught a glimpse of his Sensei, who was holding the sorely missed-item in his hands. "Gimme that back…" He pleaded, reaching out his hand, but the blanket-thief just shook his head mercilessly and told him again to get up.

"Don't you want any breakfast?" That was only a rhetorical question of course, since Kakashi knew that his student would never leave out a meal voluntarily, but it at least speeded up his awakening process.

"Fine, I'm coming…" He yawned, stretching himself: "What time is it anyway?"

"Four in the morning."  
"What?! Are they nuts? Who the hell gets up at this time of day? Man… the more I know them, the less I like those guys… believe it."

"You don't have to like them, just do what they tell you, that's enough."

"Pah." Naruto pouted, as he finally started getting dressed, but as he pulled over Sasuke's shirt, his face dropped slightly. "Kakashi-sensei? You think they are okay?"

The Hatake looked with a sympathetic face at the blonde boy before he replied: "I'm pretty sure of it… there's no need to worry."

"Hmm…" The Uzumaki responded absently, as he followed his team-leader out into the corridor, where they met up with a relatively awake looking Sakura.

"G'morning, Sakura-chan." Naruto greeted her, almost cheerful again.

"Good morning… where do we have to go to?" She asked looking up and down the large corridor with its many doors and branches, a huge question mark written on her equally huge forehead.

"No clue." Kakashi replied, scratching the back of his head, causing the three shinobi to sigh and drop their heads simultaneously, as if by command.

"Does that mean we have to search for it? – I'm starving!" Naruto whined desperately and looked pleadingly at his team-mates.

"I guess we should just go to the main hall, someone should be there to instruct us."

"Yeah, like yesterday, when we had to wait almost half an hour for someone to show up." Sakura reminded the grey-haired man, who simply shrugged and nevertheless led the way to the throne room.

As soon as they had reached it, they were already expected by the same strained looking man that had also woken them up. "Follow me." He stated dryly and went to the door on the left side of the hall.

After having passed numerous corridors, they finally entered a room, that didn't really look like a dining-hall, but rather like an operating room; the floor was made of white marble, while the walls were equally white tiled and everything, including the likewise blank furnishing was shining, as if it had just been polished. They all took a seat at one end of the large table and looked expectantly at the empty spaces in front of them, the mirror-like surface of the table throwing back the images of their emaciated faces, accentuating even more just how much they needed to be fed.

"So?" Naruto eventually broke the silence and looked at the people next to him: "Where's the food?" He let his eyes wander through the huge room, until the door flew open again and their personal alarm-clock, guide and apparently servant, entered, pushing a serving-trolley in front of him.

"At last! That took some time…" Naruto looked at the trolley with a hungry expression, his mouth almost watering.

"Tze" the elderly man with the greying hair snorted, grumbling something like 'what an impertinent boy', before he removed the top of the trolley and handed each person a plate, which was covered up as well by a metallic lid and left the room again.

"Oh man, finally…" Naruto rubbed his hands eagerly, before he, with a sweeping movement, removed the cover from his plate. His beforehand so enthusiastic face dropped noticeably, as he looked at the one tiny little rice-ball, which looked rather lonely on its huge plate and he exclaimed in a desperate almost lachrymose voice: "What the -? How should I get full of this?" He let his head drop on the table, before he turned his face to the side and looked at his equally disenchanted team-mates, ready to burst into tears.

…

…

After this rather disappointing meal, the three Shinobi went back into the main hall, where they again had to wait several time for their client to arrive.

"Yo, Kakashi-sensei! Doesn't feel good – I mean the waiting, right?" Naruto grinned meaningfully at the grey-haired Jounin; however that one didn't seem to grasp what his student was driving at and just eyed him confusedly. Sakura and Naruto sighed in resignation, before they directed their eyes expectantly at the door, Jousuke and his followers had entered through the previous day as well.

"So, you're finally here." The Kihimi stated while he seated himself on his throne-like chair, in a way that should probably radiate his eminence, however in reality he looked a little lost, almost like a child, as he was sitting in this way too big chair, dressed up like a peacock.

"Wha-? How did you get here?" Naruto looked in bafflement at the man that hadn't come in though the main entrance, but had, as the rest of his team hadn't failed to notice, entered through a small door right behind the throne.

"Tze…" He shook his head scornfully – these guys were supposed to protect his life? Great… he could already reserve a parcel at the local cemetery… "I hope you've had enough time to rest and are ready for your mission."

They merely looked at him but didn't respond in any kind, so he again shook his head and clasped a hand to his forehead in an overly dramatic manner. "Oh my… okay to your mission, how much do you know already?"

"Sakura-san." Kakashi nodded to his female student, who took one step to the front and rubbed a finger under her nose while she started to explain: "Yuki-Gakure, the Land of Snow, is momentary governed by you, Lord Kihimi Jousuke, the representative –"

"I know who I am and how my country is governed, thank you very much…" He cut in sharply, his voice dripping with sarcasm: "I wanted to find out what you know about your mission, so stop showing off."

Sakura had bitten on her lower lip the whole time he'd been speaking, to keep herself from screaming at him, but after this last statement, she and the rest of her team just stared open-mouthed at the apparently suicidal man.

"YOU! -" Sakura barked furiously and clenched her fists, but Naruto and Kakashi had reacted in time and were holding the pinkette back, with all the power they could possibly bring up at that time of day. As soon as she had finally calmed down a little again, which had been followed by their client with a rather bored expression, Kakashi took over and started summing up: "The citizens of Yuki-Gakure are discontented with the temporary government of the country –" Jousuke, who was meant by this circumscription, snorted contemptuously and looked sulkily to the side, but the Jounin paid no attention to him and carried on: "Apparently members of the rivalling political party have used the turmoil, to start riots and plan assaults on the ruling Lord, which would be you."  
"Tze – well spotted." He snapped at them and this time it was Naruto who almost lost his cool about their client's disrespectful behaviour. "Is this everything you know thus far?"

The grey-haired Jounin merely raised an eyebrow, so the Kihimi just sighed and started to explain: "Okay, I guess I should start at the very beginning… About one and a half years ago, Takume Masao and I, started making approaches to Tomomi, probably the most beautiful young woman in the entire Snow Country – we were trying hard to overcome our competitor, but she just couldn't decide whom to pick. Then, about half a year ago, I finally prevailed and took her for my wife. That's when the riots started, Takume Masao, who is the son of the Lord, momentary ruling the other party, the Takume's obviously -"

"Wait a second." Naruto interrupted him with a confused expression. "Are you saying, the whole country is in revolt for a woman?!"

"No one would ever admit it, but that's how it is… even though Masao is still very young and inexperienced, he is a very jealous and competitive person – in order to get what he wants, he doesn't even shrink back from involving thousands of innocent people into his personal business – all he wants right now is to destroy me."

"And just because you've taken away his woman he even wants to kill you – that's… somehow… romantic…" Sakura cupped her hands around her face and looked dreamily into the air, while everyone else just eyed her sceptically, feeling a little dumbfounded. "In a very sick and unacceptable way, though…" She added in a defending tone and looked uncomfortably from one person to the other.

"Anyway…" Jousuke stared incredulously at the pink-haired Kunoichi before he carried on: "That coward Masao has disappeared from the scene the very second the uproars started, but he has a lot of subordinates and rumours have it, that he even hired some foreign ninjas - that's the reason why I hired you in the first place; therefore your mission is to protect mine and my wife's life, plus you are to find and eliminate Masao and his followers and stop the civil war."  
"You want us to kill the heir of the other political party? Excuse my intervention, but that would be rather impolitical – since the situation within your nation is already strained it would only deteriorate things if you would kill a person of his political status." Kakashi advised him, while the Lord was starting to get impatient.

"Well you don't have to kill him, just imprison him and prove him guilty or whatever – just make sure he can neither harm me nor my wife."

"Where is your wife anyway?" Naruto asked him looking around, as if he expected her to just pop up that very second.

"Why do you want to know that – it's none of your business!" He snapped at them, crossing his arms in front of his chest, causing the ninjas to look at him in sheer surprise.

"Well if we are supposed to protect her, it would be helpful to know where she is." The Hatake stated in a matter-of-fact tone, not lifting his eyes off the kind of dubiously behaving man.

"Pah, where is she?!" He imitated them in an upset voice, nervously throwing his arms into the air, while he walked from one side of the small stage to the other. "Where should she be? I've locked her away of course – at a safe place – your way of protecting her lies solely in eliminating Masao. That is your top priority. I guess that's all you need to know about this mission! Meet up with Hideki in front of my mansion – he'll tell you everything he's been able to find out about the strategies of the Takumes up to now." Without saying goodbye or anything, Jousuke turned around and walked hastily out of the same hidden door he had entered through, too, leaving rather suspicious and not to forget tired and hungry Konoha-nins behind.

…

…


	31. Subcooled mood

**31. Subcooled mood**

"Man this guy is weird…" Naruto crossed his arms behind his head and walked through the large corridor right next to his team-mates. "Having a secret door right behind his throne… who does he think he is – Superman?"

"Is that all you find weird about him?" The pinkette gazed at her friend, with sheer disbelieve in her pretty emerald eyes.

"Of course not – I think he's a fairly weird man in general, I mean look at his clothes and this house and everything…"

"That's not what I was talking about – I mean for example the way he reacted, as we asked after his wife… that was pretty strange if you ask me."

"You're right." The Hatake joined their conversation "and then there was also something about his choice of words, every time the talk came to his wife. For example he didn't say he married her, but he _took_ her as his wife, even though that doesn't really have to mean anything –"

"Yes, I know!" Sakura interrupted him agitatedly "And he also said, he had locked her away instead of maybe hidden her, or something…"

"Exactly. I guess it's not really a part of our mission, but we should keep our eyes open nevertheless…"  
"Right." They both replied, but then fell silent as they stepped out of the mansion, seeing Hideki leaning at a wall opposite of the doorway, apparently waiting for them. He had a rather sour look on his face, even though it was hard to tell since he was wearing a thick scarf that was covering most of his face and it was still snowing a little and reasonably dark outside, so their view was slightly diminished, even though the clean white snow reflected the light pretty well. However they were glad to see that the storm was pretty much over by now and felt more confident, that they would see their team-mates again in one piece.

"There you are, at last…." Hideki mumbled unintelligibly – when they had first met him they had thought he was mumbling because of the huge scarf he was wearing since it covered his entire mouth, but as they've heard him speak in the throne hall – without his scarf, they had realized that he just didn't have a clear pronunciation in general.

"So where are we going to?" Naruto asked him curiously, jumping on the wall that was bordering the grounds, to get a better view of the region, he hadn't been able to see the day before.

"Tze, don't be so nosy boy – just follow me." He stated unfriendly, before he grumbled something that sounded like 'damn Konoha – sending a bunch of kids…' but they couldn't tell for sure. They mainly went back the same way they had come from yesterday and after they were almost a mile away from Jousuke's mansion, Hideki finally started to explain: "First we are going to the northern base –"

"A base?" Sakura wondered, unable to keep a tiny hint of amusement out of her voice – she just couldn't think of any reason, why they had a base at all and what they should do there anyway.

"Yes, to the base." He shot her a deadly glare, obviously motioning her to shut up. "All the information about the Takumes we've collected thus far are there and we also have detailed reports about the past events stored in it."

"But why in a base, when you have that huge mansion? Especially since Jousuke-sama said, he had gathered all trustworthy persons close around him." Sakura asked again, not able to hold back her curiosity.

"We figured the mansion wouldn't be a safe place for those documents."

"Why?" This time it was Naruto, who dared to ask the already annoyed man another question.

"Because the mansion would be the first place to search for them." His voice sounded rather edgy and it was clear that he considered these questions as self-evident, but Naruto carried on asking: "But what's so special about these documents anyway; I mean the Takumes' are a quite popular family. They are a part of the country's politics after all, right? - So they should be known by everyone anyway and information about the course of events… I mean everyone witnessed what happened, so that's like nothing special, too…" Naruto pondered and therefore didn't notice that the man walking in front of him had stiffened up and was gritting his teeth angrily.

"Tze…" He just snarled "I never expected you to understand it." Their guide almost spat out these words and increased his pace, so that he was out of ear-shot for any further stupid questions they might direct at him.

Naruto looked at his Sensei, hoping that that one would answer his questions, but the grey-haired man had his one visible eye fiercely fastened on Hideki's back, while Sakura was busy with watching the area, trying to memorize it as best as possible, in case they should ever have to find their way back here on their own.

"Hey, Sakura-chan" Naruto decreased his pace, so that he was now walking next to the pinkette "You think if we stay longer in this country, we'll become as bitter and rude as them, too?"

Sakura grinned sheepishly and raised a finger to her lips: "Shush – he'll hear us…" And even though that really was the case, Jousuke's personal assistant didn't bother to respond to their insults and just walked obstinately ahead, until they arrived at the base – an old, sordid light house at the mountain edge, with a view over the ocean and the few ice floes on it.

…

…

A faint grunt reverberated through the large cave, as the coal-black eyes of a raven haired boy slowly fluttered open. He directed his gaze through their hideout, which was now illuminated by a soft orange light, before his eyes wandered down and he noticed that he was again holding his team-mate tightly in his arms. Everything he could see of her was a violet shock of hair though, since she had completely crawled under the blanket to hide herself from the cold. He could feel her soft breath grazing his chest, while her small hands were resting on his belly, close underneath her face. He looked up again, into the dead ash, which was now coated by a thin white ice layer, when he noticed how the girl next to him shifted her weight slightly. She let out a soft moan and started to stretch herself, but as soon as her arms emerged from underneath the covers, she jerked them back hastily and a violent shudder ran through her entire body, causing the Uchiha to snort tauntingly.

However the confrontation with the icy coldness, prevailing in the region beyond the sleeping bag, was enough to arouse the girl from sleep and as she slowly opened her eyes and saw some white, or due to the darkness rather grey skin, right in front of them, she twitched slightly in surprise and was now by all means wide-awake. She was waiting for the heat to rush into her face, but since she was so subcooled she felt pretty numb and therefore couldn't tell whether she was now bright red or not – even though she guessed her skin-colour was rather tending to a bluish-grey tone… The violet-haired girl soon decided to creep out from under the blanket before she might accidentally catch a glimpse of some more private body parts of her team-mate, what would definitely lead to her turning into a full-size tomato, even though she couldn't deny that she was kind of curious nevertheless…

"Good morning…" She muttered hesitantly, as her head slowly emerged from under the covers and she found him already staring at her, making her feel rather uncomfortable, especially since the memories of the previous night, slowly started to reappear.

"Hn." He merely grunted, before he slowly sat up, not really minding that his team-mate was still partly lying on top of him and was therefore lifted up as well, while the covers slowly started sinking down. She tensed up and pulled the blanket closer to her body, while she watched how Sasuke started rummaging in his bag, which was lying right beside him and pulled out a fresh pair of shorts, which he just pulled over inside of the sleeping bag, without being bothered by the person next to him at all. While he was dressing, Sayuri had looked away demonstratively, until she noticed him standing up and walking, still solely in his boxers, through the cold, to the cave entrance.

He came back after a few seconds and went to a couple of rocks, close to their bonfire, which was now hardly more than a pile of ashes and started picking up their clothes, he had apparently hung there to dry and threw them at her.

While he was standing there, she noticed that something was wrong about him; he'd been badly wounded on his shoulder and his rips the day before, but now, not even 12 hours later, his skin was just perfectly white and smooth, there was no trace of any cuts or bruises, not even scars – as if nothing had happened. While he pulled over his pants and his cloak, she pondered whether she should ask him about it or not, but then he looked over his shoulder at the kind of absent girl and startled her out of her thoughts: "The storm is over, there's no need to stay here any longer." And after these words he just left the cave, probably giving her some privacy to get dressed herself, which she then hurriedly did.

After having pulled her white winter-coat over her usual clothes, she took a last look around the cave, making sure they hadn't left anything behind, before she stepped out into the even colder morning air as well, where she found her team-mate leaning against a rock and looking at the area in front of him pensively.

"Ehm… do you have any idea where we are?" Sayuri asked him hesitantly, because she hadn't picked up anything of the way to this place, given that she had been too busy being unconscious.

"The river is over there." He nodded to the west and even though she concentrated firmly, she couldn't see it, since there were too many rocks in the way and the slight snowfall and the opaque morning mist still kind of diminished their view. "But the village is in the east; therefore we take the path around the mountain over there." He nodded to the front this time, before he got up and started walking ahead.

…

…

As they entered the lighthouse, they had expected to find it as old and shabby from the inside as it was from the outside too, but they were pleasantly surprised, as they found themselves in a nice and cosily furnished, though rather untidy room, held mainly in warm-colours, unlike the dreary and sterile mansion they had just come from and as soon as they came to a halt in the middle of the completely round room, they were warmly welcomed by a happily beaming man, almost floating down the circular staircase in the back of the room, with his arms widely spread in a welcoming manner.

Watching the man closely, Sakura soon remarked his damn good looks: his long silky hair reached to his shoulders and had a reddish-brown colour and his likewise brown-eyes were shining joyfully as he let them wander over their small group. He wore rather light clothes, considering the fact that there were minus temperatures outside, which emphasized his muscular stature perfectly – he was pretty much looking like a movie-star.  
"Is this the aid we're getting from Konoha?" He asked, lacking every dissatisfied undertone, all the other people they had met thus far had presented. "We are really grateful to have you here, I can assure you…"

Naruto merely raised an eyebrow at this statement, because up to now he hadn't felt welcomed here at all… However Sakura just hung on his every word and blushed slightly as she realized that he was approaching her. "To imagine that Konoha would voluntarily relinquish such a beautiful Kunoichi and let her help out in a country this far away…" He shook his head, sighing dramatically, before he shot her a bewitching smile and winked at her.

"Ehehe…" Sakura laughed bashfully feeling the heat rise into her face and was therefore glad, as she heard Hideki harrumph impatiently, demanding their attention: "Yuudai, stop flirting and just do your job for once."

"Oh calm down Hideki – don't be so uptight. With such a pretty woman in here – how could I not give her a compliment, huh?" He grinned widely and winked at Sakura again, who judging from her skin-colour reminded a lot of Hinata right now.

Naruto and Kakashi just rolled their eyes simultaneously while the blonde coughed something like 'suck-up' under his breath.

Hideki shot his comrade another demanding glance, so he just shrugged and sighed: "Follow me."

They went to a small desk completely covered with some scripts and books and various writing utensils, but with one single movement of his arm, Yuudai had freed the table from all these unnecessary items and grinned impishly at Sakura, who was, just as he had expected, appalled by his daring behaviour, before he pulled out a worn out black book and opened it for them. "Here we have all the information we have thus far been able to gather about the Takumes and even of the ninjas they have hired, including descriptions of the techniques they use, as well as pictures of course, so you know with whom you're dealing." He rummaged through the pile of pictures until he found the one he had searched for and showed it to the three Konoha-nins. "This guy is Takume Masao, the initiator of the riots and the reason for all the misery going on in the Land of Snow at the moment."

"This guy?!" Naruto looked sceptically at the picture of a blond, rather youthful and friendly looking guy "He looks so… so…"

"Nice?" Sakura completed his sentence, rather doubtful herself.

"Don't let the appearance deceive you, hardly anyone has his character written on his face." Kakashi lectured them and was confirmed by Yuudai at once. "You should listen to him – he's right. Even though he may look like a little angel, he sure isn't. I know him from when we were children, he's always been a very spoiled kid, but still I would have never expected him to go this far… Anyway here we've got pictures of ten of our ninjas, which have joined him and over here are pictures of two of the ninjas he has hired, even though we assume that there are at least five of them."

"So then, how are they fighting?" Kakashi enquired, not lifting his eyes off the various pictures in front of him, trying to memorize all the faces.

"Our ninjas – if we can still call them like that, mainly use Taijutsu but most of them are able to use ice-jutsus as well. About the hired ninjas; well… we've just seen one of them in action yet and he mainly used Ninjutsu, that's all we know about them…" The brown-haired man finished his rather scanty illustrations, before he turned to his comrade and asked: "You take care of things here, Hideki?"

"Tze – why should I? That's your task!" The addressed-person mumbled moodily and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Oh, then you want to give them a tour through the town centre and exemplify the whole situation, with all its juicy details to them, don't you?" Yuudai grinned sardonically and shot an askant look at his partner, already knowing how he would react.

"Fine, I'll hold the fort here." Hideki murmured sullenly before he retreated upstairs, probably as glad about the fact that he finally got rid of the Konoha-ninjas, as they were about getting rid of him.

…

…

They'd been striving through the mountain region for hours now, but still everything was looking just the same to them, so it was hard to tell whether they had gotten any closer to their destination or if they were even so much as moving into the right direction at all; from the looks of it, they could have also walked in circles and they wouldn't have noticed – but since they were both well-skilled Shinobi that was highly unlikely.

They had barely talked in all the time, but at least they had talked at all, which was pretty relieving for Sayuri, because she had been afraid that after what had happened, things between them would be awkward – even more than usually that is, but fortunately they weren't, however that also meant that it really hadn't meant anything to him at all and that was kind of sobering as well…

After some time they finally left the mountains behind and found themselves in a forested area. Judging from the position of the sun, it was somewhat around noon now, but that was hard to tell, since the sun was most of the time hidden behind some heavy clouds and they could just every once in a while perceive some sunbeams breaking through the cloud cover.

"We'll take a break here." Sasuke stated as they reached a small clearing in the middle of the snow draped forest and pulled out a scroll, containing a map of Yuki-Gakure. He spread it out and they both leaned over it, trying to make out where exactly they were at the moment.

"Before we got lost, we took this path" Sayuri pointed her finger at the map and let it run over the area she figured was right. "Then we fell back and I guess this must be the river we landed in." She looked at her team-mate, who was still eyeing the card, with an unreadable expression, until he looked up and just nodded.

"The cave we stayed in must be here, so this must be the route we have taken." He pointed at the map as well and then looked into the sky again, trying to make out how long they had travelled, but Sayuri was faster.

"Then this must be the wood we are in right now, so we're just about another hour away from the town centre." She faced the Uchiha again, who then just rolled up the scroll again and put it away.

"Do we have anymore water?" Sayuri asked him while rummaging in her bag, which had been lightened of most of her food- and apparently also water-stocks, on the journey to this place.

"Hn." He nodded and pulled out a bottle which he then passed to her. However as she tried to drink from it, nothing came out, so she shook it a little before she uttered in a frustrated voice: "Frozen… this country really sucks…"

Sighing, the Uchiha approached her and reached out his hand again, motioning her to give the bottle back to him. He then used a fire jutsu on it to warm the contents of the small flask, before he gave it back to her. She took it thankfully, before she suddenly turned her head to the side and looked into the distance. Her eyes narrowed as she concentrated hard on the Chakra she had just felt and as she turned back to the Uchiha, she realized that he had noticed it too.

"It's still far away…" she stated getting up from the tree trunk she had been sitting on.

"Hn." The Uchiha murmured and looked at the area sceptically.

"There are just mountains in that direction – you think it's those Yuki-nins again?"

"Maybe." He merely stated, shouldering his backpack again. "Let's go."

He started walking again and after gazing into that direction for a few more seconds Sayuri followed right after him. If they had hurried, they would have long reached their destination by then, but since both of them were still quite exhausted, they walked in a normal pace, what turned out to have been a good decision, since otherwise they would have probably missed out on the fact that they were being followed.

…

…

It took the Konoha-nins and their new guide hardly more than 40 minutes, until they came across the first small housing estate. They were really glad that Yuudai had taken Hideki's place; unlike him, this new guy was really friendly and he actually talked to them and answered their questions without throwing annoyed glares at them – and on top of that he also had a clear pronunciation; the only thing that bothered Naruto was how this guy was all the time flirting with Sakura and the way she was spending the whole journey giggling about his rather lame jokes and coquetting with him. As they finally came across the first houses in the area, Naruto was at a point when he had gladly taken the rude, but at least taciturn Hideki back, instead of this narcissistic womanizing chatterbox Yuudai.

"You could call this area the slums of Yuki-Gakure" The auburn haired man explained "- mainly poor people live here, or those that are just trying to set foot in the Land of Snow. Many of the revolts have started here, since especially the poorer people are eager to change something about the nation's politics, so they can take advantage of it."

"Sounds logic…" Sakura remarked and looked at the shabby huts, until she locked eyes with a gloomy figure standing in one of the many alleys and turned away at once.

"Don't mind them" Yuudai laid a hand on her shoulder and grinned at her encouragingly "They only act when their leader tells them to…"

"So those people have doubtlessly taken the Takumes' side." Kakashi watched them suspiciously too, but didn't shy away from any eye contact, until he heard his male student raise his voice and therefore looked at him. "How are they communicating – I mean they must be getting instructions, right?"

"That is something we haven't been able to find out yet, accordingly this is your job."

They nodded apprehensively and carried on with their walk through the slum area, until they came across a young girl that had just tripped over a stone and started crying bitterly. Sakura and Naruto made their way to the little girl at once, ready to heal her scratch and cheer her up a bit, but before they were able to reach her, an elderly woman, wearing completely ragged and dirty clothes, blocked their path and waved an old birch-broom at them furiously, before she picked up the girl and hurried inside one of the shabby huts with her.

"What was that all about?" Naruto asked, scratching his head in confusion. "It's not like we wanted to harm her or something…"

"Yeah – pretty weird." Sakura nodded, her eyes still focused on the now closed door.

"Not really – they've made bad experiences with strangers… let's go." Yuudai turned around indifferently and carried on walking, but Naruto caught up to him and asked: "Because of the hired-ninjas?"

"Guess so…"

"But didn't you say they had taken the Takumes' side anyway? I mean if that's the case they shouldn't have to worry about them, right?" This time it was Sakura to pose a question, leading their guide to shoot an impressed look at her.

"You're paying attention, not only pretty but also smart – excellent." He smiled at her delightedly and carried on: "The people hate the war – they want it to end, but at the moment that's not an option therefore they more or less had to choose a side and that's unfortunately been the wrong one; in most of the cases at least, however it's not really unusual, since they think the foreign ninjas are working for Jousuke-sama…"

"How come they think so?" Naruto asked him sceptically, while he let his eyes again roam over the many dark figures hiding in the alleyways.

"It's the most obvious conclusion – the first action those ninjas took, was to attack a district, which was mainly inhabited by relatives or followers of the Takume family."

"What?! This Masao attacked his own people?" The three Konoha-nins looked at their guide in shock, but he just shook his head and carried on explaining.

"No, they just vandalized the quarter; however most of the buildings were empty at that time, so no one was killed."

"But was there no way for Jousuke to convince his citizen that he had nothing to do with these assaults?" Sakura asked after some hesitation.

"He didn't know the people were blaming him for the attacks, he just saw them turning their backs on him…"

"And what happened then? I'm sure Jousuke-sama didn't just sit around and do nothing…In how far have the Kihimis' participated in this war?" Kakashi scrutinized their guide cautiously, as he responded with a factitious smile on his face: "You're getting right to the point, huh? Okay, after some unsuccessful discussions, Jousuke-sama, still unaware of this whole conspiracy, realized that talking with these guys wouldn't help, therefore he decided on dealing with them by force." He stopped after these words and no one said a thing, expecting him to carry on talking, but since he didn't Naruto asked: "What do you mean with 'by force'"

"I'm not sure if I'm authorised to tell you…"

"Look…" Kakashi turned to him and gave him a piercing look. "It's our mission to help Jousuke-sama, we are not here to judge him and we can do our job best, if we have a detailed idea of what is going on… and it's not like we wouldn't find out - you'd just make it easier for us."

The auburn haired man eyed their little group sceptically until he came upon Sakura's encouraging smile and just lowered his head, shaking it uneasily, before he finally sighed, a slight smile reappearing on his face: "Fine, I guess it should be all right. Jousuke-sama knows about the peoples' aversion to war and everything going with it, so he thought, if he would merely deteriorate the general situation, he could kind of 'break their will' and make them join the safe and convenient side again… However his actions mainly led to an increasing revolt within the folk and people started running to the concurrence even more…"

"What kind of measures did he take?" The grey haired Jounin enquired, watching the apparently uneasy feeling man, who nevertheless answered their questions more amenable than you should think. "Well you see, he thought if he'd just keep some basic things away from them, they'd come begging for them in no time –"

"Basic things?" Naruto interrupted him and their guide just nodded. "Food."

"What?! He took away their food?" That's absolutely inhumane –"  
"Naruto – we are not here to judge, just listen." Kakashi reprimanded him and after a few seconds Yuudai carried on: "Yes, food. He set an ultimatum: either they delivered the initiators of the riots or he'd cut off the food provision, you see, most of our food supplies come from abroad, since as you can imaging nothing is really growing here… however as he finally found out what was going on, he had already lost most of the sympathy of his people, so it was too late for him to go back then…"

"Wait a second." Sakura cut in "You mean the ninjas we fought as we were still on board ship were actually our clients' people and not the rebels?"

"Oh no, that really were the rebels. They have been trying to steal the food to distribute it among the people."

"So they were actually the good guys?" Naruto asked, apparently confused by all the abstruse facts.

"There is no such thing as good guys or bad guys – this is reality; everyone is just a different shade of gray; if you want to say it with colours…" Yuudai exemplified, looking at the blonde ninja who had his eyes closed in a concentrated manner and was apparently trying to make sense of what he had just heard.

"Hmm… I still don' get it." Naruto opened his eyes again and looked helplessly at his Sensei, but that one just shook his head and they carried on walking, so they soon left the slums behind and reached the barely nicer town centre.

…

…

"They are coming closer." Sayuri remarked, while cautiously walking next to Sasuke, who had his eyes closed and concentrated on their pursuers as well and just a few seconds later, they both came to a sudden stop as they heard a voice being raised to their left.

"Look who we've got here… you survived then" The red-haired Yuki-nin from the day before smirked at them smugly, as he appeared from behind a tree, just a few metres in front of them. Sasuke glared at him threateningly, while Sayuri stood a little behind him and turned around, facing the two other ninjas that had just appeared on the scene, too. She recognized the white-haired man, which had attacked them yesterday, however the other one was new and he looked completely different from the other twos, since he wasn't wearing any uniform, but a black leather jacket and brown pants.

"Looks like we've been sloppy, Kano." The red-head grinned at his comrade, who then turned to the other man and whispered something to him. As he had finished, the stranger just nodded and walked away casually, not casting another look at the Konoha-nins, while they on the other hand followed his every movement until he was out of sight. A chuckle coming from the red-haired man caused them to turn back to their opponents again and scrutinize them carefully.

Sasuke's opponent was just about to say something, when the raven-haired man already started rushing towards him – this time he wouldn't wait until he had cast his snowstorm and they'd be blinded again - he wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

He drew his katana and aimed it right at his opponent, however that one was able to jump back in time and cursed, while he started to form a few hand signs, obviously tense, however before he had finished, the Uchiha who had a millisecond ago been right in front of him, appeared at his side and cut off both his hands, disabling him from finishing his seals, while he kept a straight face all the time.

At the same time the white-haired man, Kano as he'd been called, had pulled out his shortsword, too and was pointing it at the girl in front of him.

"I still have a score to settle with you." He snarled in a husky voice "Your butterflies annoyed the shit out of me…"

Instead of responding, the Kunoichi just stared at her opponent, drawing a kunai as well, eager not to miss any of his movements.

With a mocking sneer on his face the Yuki-nin started to rush towards her, but instead of using his sword, he started throwing some shuriken he had held in the other hand, catching his opponent off guard.

"Damn…" Sayuri gasped and used her kunai to fend off the missiles, when just a second later a foot appeared right in front of her face. She raised her arms up with a jerk, to cover her face and felt how a few of the throwing-stars pierced her skin, before the Yuki-nin's foot collided with her underarms. Blocking out the pain as best as possible, she used the momentum and let herself fall on her back, while she raised one of her knees and rammed it straight into the bottom side of her opponent's thigh, causing the man to contort his face with pain.

Meanwhile the Uchiha was towering menacingly over the wincing man in front of him, who was desperately trying to crawl away from his opponent, while he started screaming for his comrade. 'And that man has really been able to beat me? Impossible.' Sasuke thought, as his mind travelled back to the previous defeat they had suffered.

"Not so smug anymore, hn?" The Uchiha asked him mockingly, a light sneer appearing on his face, while he watched through his pitch black eyes, how the countenance of the Yuki-nin started to change and a furious expression appeared on his face, while he narrowed his eyes and his ever-present grin started to spread again.

"Tze…" He merely snarled, before he pursed his lips, planning to spit ice-needles at the Uchiha, but as they were just about to depart his mouth, Sasuke stomped vigorously on his opponent's throat, causing the red-head to open his mouth in shock and for oxygen deficiency, however that movement, led him to swallow his own ice-senbons, which hence started to gore his throat and so just a few seconds later he chocked on his own blood.

Kano started to tumble backwards, as Sayuri jumped back to her feet and formed a few handsigns. A second later, roots started to emerge form the ground and twined around the Yuki-nin, making it impossible for him to move. He looked around frantically, not realizing that he was trapped in a Genjutsu and widened his eyes as the young Kunoichi started walking towards him. She looked at her terrified opponent and let Chakra run through her palm, then she raised her arm and pointed an outstretched hand at the man's forehead, causing him to close his eyes dazedly and loose his consciousness. As soon as she was sure he was unconscious, she dissolved her Genjutsu and watched how the limp figure of the Yuki-nin sank to the floor, before she turned around and looked at her team-mate who was standing, apparently unharmed and surrounded by an almost frightening air of superiority, in front of the corpse of his opponent, lying on the floor, right at his feet.

…

…


	32. New insights

**32.**** New insights**

"Can we take a lunch break or something? I'm starving!" Naruto whined as they eventually came to a halt at the market place. Yuudai hadn't finished his illustrations about the whole situation yet, but the blonde was just so hungry that he really had problems in following their guide's depictions.

"Well that's quite impossible." He told the Konoha-nins, who hence looked at him with perplexed expressions, until Naruto asked him in complete disbelief: "Why?! We didn't really eat anything today – that stuff they called breakfast was just ridiculous!"

"As I told you, Jousuke-sama has cut off the food supply, so all shops are closed now and people keep the little food they still have left for themselves – you'll have to wait until we get back, though that might take some time… but I have some mints, if you want some."

"Mints? Are you kidding?" Naruto grumbled and cursed himself for having eaten all his stocks already on the outward journey, but it seemed as if he wasn't the only one, since the rest of his team looked rather hungry, too. He couldn't help but to think about Sasuke and Sayuri again; they probably hadn't even had as much as a lousy breakfast and it was already noon by now and there was still no sign of them.

"Kakashi-sensei?" He asked the grey-haired man, who then turned his head into the boy's direction, showing him that he had his full attention. "When we're done here, can we go and look for Sasuke and Sayuri? I'm really starting to get worried…" He regretted having said that, because as soon as it was out, he could see Sakura lower her head in distress. He detached his eyes from his friend and looked expectantly at his Sensei who was apparently staring at nothing in particular, occupied with his thoughts, until he eventually said: "When we're done with our tour, our mission only just starts, we don't have enough time to spend on searching for them…" He looked into the faces of his dismayed students and sighed: "but I guess if they still haven't shown up by the end of the day, I'll go and search for them myself, all right?"

"Okay." They both nodded and Sakura asked: "But Kakashi-sensei, why don't you just send your ninja-dogs? They could look for them and lead them here; then none of us would be wasting any time…"

"I've thought about that, too, but the storm was raging all night – it's highly unlikely that there is anything left of their smell…. But I have trust in them, they'll handle things on their own, I'm sure of that."

"Are you done with your little conference, now?" - Out of everyone else's' mouth this question would have sounded utterly impolite, but coming from their guide it almost sounded like a compliment – every word coming out of his mouth was as sweet as honey – it was pretty hard to suspect any ill intention behind them and after having endured him for several hours, Naruto felt ready to throw up – if that hadn't meant that he'd get rid of the last bit of food that was still left inside of his stomach…

They soon came upon a completely destructed street, looking as if a bomb had only just detonated in it. The entire road was covered with debris and dust, while most of the bigger rubble had been moved to the side of it. Hardly any house was left in one piece – at some of the buildings there were just parts of the ceiling missing or the frontage was blackened with soot, while at others entire walls had crumbled down and there was nothing left but the base frame. All in all, the street gave a desolate and sordid impression.

"This is the district I've told you about – as you can see they really took their task seriously… you wouldn't guess that anyone left this place alive…"

"But you said that no one got hurt – shouldn't that have made the people suspicious?" Sakura asked, while she scrutinized the utter chaos.

"No – I never said no one got hurt. All I said is that none of the Takumes was there as it happened… but many of the ordinary citizens were harmed. The Takumes that have been supposed to be here as it happened, have gone underground… it was a mere coincidence that we found out they were still alive – one of our spies came across them as they were just about to leave the country. You see, they don't even shrink from harming non-involved people - their ruthlessness is what makes them so dangerous and that is why you have to stop them – before things get out of hands even more…"

The three shinobi grinned grimly, until they noticed that something had changed about the behaviour of the few people that were out on the street. They had kept a good distance to their group whenever they had passed them, but as soon as they were out of the way again, they went back to doing whatever they had done before; however now they could see some small groups forming, retreating from the open streets into some better sheltered areas, like small alleyways or just at some walls that cast their shadows upon them.

"Something is happening" Naruto remarked as he stared with raised eyebrows at a whispering – probably conspiring– group of people. "Maybe they've just gotten some orders or something, you said you didn't know how they communicated, so we should –"

"Baka – if they were scheming that obviously it would have been easy to discover them - if you ask me they look rather distressed …" Sakura looked down the street with a worried expression on her face, until Kakashi raised his voice after a few seconds: "Told you they'd make it."

"Huh?" His two students looked at him in confusion, but he just nodded to the source of the unrest, so they narrowed their eyes and stared intently into the distance, until they caught sight of two figures walking into their direction.

"What the - are these-?" Naruto stumbled and looked up at his Sensei again, who just nodded happily and now Sakura had realized what was going on, too.

"They're back" she smiled clasping her hands in front of her chest and sighing in relief, while Naruto started waving enthusiastically and called out his friends' names, before he rushed into their direction.

The two lost shinobi looked up as they heard the turmoil in front of them and soon noticed the blonde shinobi running towards them. "Where the hell have you been? We've been damn worried about you – are you okay?" He rattled off, eyeing their rather torn clothes with an anxious expression on his face.

"We're okay, don't worry." Sayuri assured him and looked at the rest of her team that was slowly approaching them too.

"Who's that?" Naruto pointed at the tied up and apparently unconscious man Sasuke was dragging behind him.

"He attacked us -" the raven haired boy started but was soon interrupted by the blonde.

"What?! That's so unfair! We've been here listening to some boring stuff all day, not even getting a decent meal and you've already been fighting?!"

Before they could answer, the rest of their group arrived and asked after their well-being and then there was some other man, they'd never seen before, with them, who stared at the two shinobi with wide eyes and slowly approached them. With a weird expression on his face, he stepped towards Sayuri and took her hands, giving her a charming smile before he purred: "You guys are really lucky, with two such beautiful ladies on your team… I'd really love to be in your place…"

Sayuri looked at him, feeling a little ridiculed and wrinkled her nose before she withdrew her hands from his grip with a fake smile on her face and stepped back a little. Still with her eyes focused on that guy and the same factitious smile on her lips, she leaned towards Naruto and whispered: "What's with him?"

The chaos-ninja just sighed and shook his head: "He's like that all the time – just ignore him."

"Ah…" she remarked and grimaced a little as she saw him wink at her, until she heard her Sensei ask: "So what happened?"

"That's a rather long story…" She muttered and looked up at Sasuke, but before he could say anything, if he had meant to do so at all, the brown-haired man started: "We're finished here anyway, how about we go back to the base and you tell us your story while you take a little rest – you really look like you could need it…" He remarked, while eyeing them from head to toe – way too long for their taste.

"Thanks, that's very nice of you." The violet-haired girl replied eventually since no one else seemed to feel obliged to say anything and observed how his face lighted up again and his brilliant-white movie-star smile was displayed once more, before he ecstatically swung around on his heels and led the way back, while his hair waved behind him, as if he had installed his own personal wind-machine, for that job.

…

…

Their now pretty large group arrived the base – the wrecked lighthouse – hardly an hour later. They entered through the brash door, which almost took off its hinges, as they closed it again, earning them a scornful grunt by Hideki, who had apparently been waiting for them.

"At last… what took you so long and who's that?" He pointed rudely at the two Konoha-nins, he hadn't met until now.

"Well now, where are your manners?" Yuudai shook his head with exaggerated consternation - much to the dislike of Hideki, who looked as if he'd want to jump at his opposite's throat - before he flashed a smile and winked again – he was strongly reminding of Maito Gai, but fortunately he wasn't wearing a skin-tight green spandex jumpsuit. "Why don't you just take it easy for once, hmm? – I'll handle things here. Come on, let's go upstairs" He motioned the five shinobi to follow him, but Naruto interrupted him: "What about this guy?" He pointed at their captive before he looked at the auburn-haired man again, who was apparently pondering right now: "How long will he stay unconscious?"

"At least another hour, probably two…" Sayuri looked at the guy and cringed, as the moviestar-guy suddenly clasped his hands noisily and shot a sanguine smile to everybody around. "Well then – let's tie him to a chair and wait until he wakes up – you'll keep your eyes on him, right Hideki?"

"Whatever…" He mumbled from somewhere behind a shelf, apparently not too keen on his task, but no one who knew him, would have expected it to be otherwise…

Just as always, Yuudai merely smiled, but this time uncommon venomously and started leading the way to the staircase. He was just about to walk upstairs, when he apparently changed his mind and turned around again: "Ladies first…" He bowed down slightly and carried out an inviting gesture, with a rather sly grin on his face. Everyone eyed him suspiciously, until the girls finally took the lead and were directly followed by the brown-haired man.

"'Ladies first' my ass…" Naruto grumbled as the first part of their group had vanished to the upper floor "he only did that to stare at their butts, that pervert!"

"Most likely…" Kakashi confirmed and went upstairs, too, very carefully though, since the steps were cracking alarmingly at his every move.

"Pfft…" the blonde snorted – he was actually used to being together with perverts: there was Kakashi for example who was always reading his porns and then Jiraiya and Ebisu, who were bold voyeurs, however none of them was able to upset him the way this guy did – probably because unlike them, the show he was putting on seemed to work out…

…

…

After having summed up the essence of the past events to each other, the five shinobi and their guide reviewed their situation and rested a little. The upper floor of the lighthouse was far less spectacular than the lower one; there was a huge lamp in the middle of the room, which, with the broken glass and the thick dust layer on top of it, didn't look operative any more and the numerous glassless windows that were surrounding it were nailed shut with some old boards, so it was rather draughty up here: that was probably the reason why there were so many blankets lying on the floor.

Tightly wrapped in a few of those, the six persons had been sitting on the floor for quite a while, engaged in several discussions about how to proceed; they didn't utter their doubts about the Lord though, since they weren't among themselves and therefore most of their conversations were rather superficial. Yuudai was just retelling all the information about the Takumes', because Sasuke and Sayuri hadn't heard them yet, and Naruto who had already been bored the first time he'd heard those, was just about to doze off, when suddenly Hideki demanded them to come down.

"He's waking up" He mumbled bluntly and leaned himself with crossed arms against a shelf, apparently waiting for the Konoha-nins to do something. Those positioned themselves around the captive and waited for him to finally wake up and as soon as he opened his eyes, Kakashi stepped in front of him and demanded to know who he was. Still fairly dazed, the Yuki-nin let his eye wander over the people surrounding him, but did not condescend to answering any of their questions.

Hideki, who was getting annoyed by the fruitless procedure the Hatake was applying, murmured after a couple of minutes: "You're supposed to make him talk and not have a tea party with him."

All eyes turned to him now, especially Sasuke and Sayuri looked a little surprised by his obvious hostility, since they hadn't had the pleasure of getting to know him yet.

"Fine." Kakashi retorted in a calm voice "I'll ask you one last time: tell me who you are and everything you know about Takume Masao."

The white-haired Yuki-nin didn't seem too impressed by this ultimatum and just looked with mocking disinterest at the man in front of him.

"Allright then, Sasuke – take over." He looked at the raven-haired boy and stepped aside so his student could stand right in front of the man he was supposed to interrogate. The Uchiha just stared at the tied up man for quite some time through his blank coal eyes, until he slowly closed his lids and when he opened them again, blood-red Sharingan were focused on the captive before him. The apathetic expression of their prisoner soon gave way to a distraught one. You could literally see how every single muscle in his body started to tense up while his pale eyes grew wide in shock and his mouth opened, even though not a single sound parted his lips. Everyone, except for Kakashi seemed rather appalled by what they saw, especially Yuudai seemed rather nervous, probably because in his eyes the Uchiha hadn't done a thing yet, so he had no idea what might have caused this reaction. After almost five minutes the auburn-haired man finally detached his eyes from the captive and turned to the people standing around him: "What's he doing?"

"Iatsu Sharingan" Kakashi answered, sounding rather impressed about how much that Genjutsu affected the tall man and in that very second the Uchiha closed his eyes again and they turned back to their usual colour. He then just stared at the Yuki-nin, whose whole body seemed to collapse, as soon as the eye contact was broken, so if it hadn't been for the fetters that held him in place, he'd have dropped to the floor. From that second on he didn't even move the fragment of an inch and his empty eyes remained directed to the floor, when Kakashi started to repeat his questions: "What's your name?"

Everyone watched the captive with bated breath, until he eventually stuttered with a very weak and monotonous voice: "Azuki Kano"

"Who are you working for?"

"The Takumes"

"I knew it." Hideki stumbled bitterly and stared through narrowed eyes at the white-haired man.

Ignoring the interruption, Kakashi carried on: "Where is Takume Masao at the moment?"

"Don't know"

"He's lying!" Hideki shouted and stormed towards the man, ready to shake or beat the truth out of him if necessary, but Naruto stepped in his way and held him back, while Kakashi repeated his question, but received the same answer again.

"Who are you getting your orders from?" The grey-haired Jounin tried again by changing his choice of words.

"Takume Nobunaga"

Naruto felt the man whom he was holding back stiffen up noticeably, so he looked at him and asked: "Who's that?"

"Don't you know anything?" Hideki snapped impatiently, while Yuudai started to explain: "Takume Nobunaga is Masao's father; he's the leader of the Takumes' – interesting…" He looked thoughtfully at the tied up man until he asked: "That's pretty unlikely – He must be lying."

"I don't think so…" The grey-haired Jounin replied and looked with raised eyebrows at the auburn-haired man, who was shaking his head, while he had a curious smile on his face.

"Why – what's so special about it?" Naruto asked him, clearly confused, as was the rest of his team, too.

"Well, to think that Nobunaga would still participate in a political revolt in his old age – it's kind of bizarre…"

"Well, maybe he's just the speaking tube of his son. That could be possible, couldn't it?" Sakura enquired, trying to find an explanation to what she had just heard.

"Maybe – who knows?" Yuudai stated mysteriously and was apparently thinking hardly, when Hideki cut in: "Tze, as if! You don't really think he would accept a subordinate role to anybody! Or that he would do it for the love of his son – hell no! There must be something he could obtain by helping him; otherwise he wouldn't lift a finger."

"He seems to be a nice guy." Sayuri murmured ironically and observed the bitter smiles that rose on their guides' faces.

"I guess that's another aspect we have to keep an eye on…" Kakashi sighed, while he directed a finger to his headband, as if he meant to make sure that it was still in place.

They all nodded in approval and Sayuri asked: "So what do we do with him now?"

"We'll imprison him, of course." Yuudai stated and looked at the five Konoha-nins. "I'll take him to our jail, but I guess I'll need some help, so…" He let his eyes wander from face to face, until he came to a halt as they reached the two girls and another bewitching movie-star-smile appeared on his lips: "Would the two ladies be so kind as to accompany me?" He fluttered his eyelashes at the two Kunoichi and looked at them pleadingly, while they just exchanged some insecure glances.

"Sasuke will do that." Kakashi looked at his student, who just shrugged indifferently and freed the captive from his fetters, who then nearly dropped from his chair, but the Uchiha caught him in time and picked him up, while Yuudai, who looked rather disillusioned about the way things had turned out, led the way to the door, but kept standing there and listened, as the Jounin carried on giving instructions.

"Naruto, Sayuri, you'll head back to the Kihimi-mansion and keep watch on the house –" While he said that, he looked meaningfully at Naruto, who apparently didn't notice that and just whined: "What? No! Why do I always get the lame tasks? I want something with more action!"

Hideki snorted resentfully and Kakashi said in a clear, insistent tone: "Naruto, it's an order – no discussion."

The blonde let out a resigning grunt and crossed his arms in front of his chest – he still didn't like his task, but as it seemed there was nothing he could do about it.

"Sakura and I are going to take a closer look at the Takumes'. We'll meet again, tonight at the mansion. Is that understood?"

"Yes." They all replied and started leaving the light house to head out to the different tasks they've been given.

…

…

The Takume mansion wasn't exactly far away from their starting point; however the walk through the town and the adjacent woodland region slowed the two Konoha-nins down considerably. After they had kept watch on the grounds for quite some time, they had found an opening to enter the vastly guarded manor, but since they were both highly skilled Shinobi the security level didn't bother them too much.

They sneaked through several halls that strongly reminded of those in the Kihimi residence, even though they weren't all white in white, but they still delivered the same kind of sterile atmosphere that made you doubt that there was actually someone living in here. During their search for something that might be of any use for their mission, they hardly met a single person, what made things pretty easy for them and they soon found out why; after some time of fruitless searching, Kakashi and Sakura eventually heard some voices, coming from behind a huge wooden door with golden ornaments decorating the edges of it, so they decided to take a closer look at it.

"Keep watch on the corridor." Kakashi advised his student as he kneeled himself on the floor and tried to peek through the keyhole, but then just pressed his ear against the door, since he could hardly see more than a few blurry silhouettes through the narrow vent. The pinkette nodded and positioned herself behind a pillar, from where she had a good view of both sides of the hall, but couldn't be seen too easily by someone passing by.

It was hard to make anything out in the babel of voices; the people on the other side of the door seemed to be very agitated about the thing they were discussing, but after some time of getting adjusted to the voices, Kakashi's trained ears were able to make out the essence of their conversation. He had listened to them for about five minutes and the discussion was heating up more and more, when he heard his student whistle from behind the pillar and directly jumped to her side. They both looked to the right, as a woman, pushing a serving-trolley came into view, but she apparently didn't walk into their direction, so they didn't fear that she could see them, however just a few seconds before she was out of sight, they heard another woman call for her and so she came to a halt again. As soon as the apparently younger woman had caught up to her, she greeted her hastily and asked: "You're bringing it to _him_, right?"

"Obviously – just because he's under arrest, doesn't mean he needn't eat." The woman with the serving trolley said in a rather snappy tone and was just about to walk off, when the younger servant held her back again: "You think _I_ can bring the food to him?"

"No. You're not authorised to see him." And with these words she finally left, leaving a slightly disgruntled woman behind, who walked through the corridor they were both hiding in, after having made a face at her colleague. Fortunately she was so upset that she apparently didn't take in much of her surroundings and therefore didn't notice the two shinobi in their hideout. Those exchanged meaningful glances but before they could do so much as to utter a single syllable, the door Kakashi had been eavesdropping on flew open and around fifteen people started leaving the room, all of them looking rather agitated; even now a few of them still had bright red faces and beads of sweat on their foreheads. However as soon as the door had opened, all voices had died out immediately and so now the crowd was silently starting to disperse.

As soon as the coast was clear again, Sakura addressed her Sensei: "So? - What have they been talking about?"

"Later… I have a feeling we should go after that servant." He stated and after checking the corridor again, he stepped out of their hiding place, closely followed by his student and they both went into the direction, they had seen the woman take.

…

…

The three-man group, including Naruto, Sayuri and Hideki spent their journey back to the Kihimi-mansion in an uncomfortable silence. The few attempts of leading a conversation, mostly started by Naruto, were nipped in the bud right away by some snippy comments and contemptuous sounds coming from the older man. As they eventually entered the huge manor, Hideki took the first chance he could grasp to finally get away from them and so, as they were finally wandering alone through the empty corridors, Sayuri addressed her comrade: "So…? What was that earlier?"

"What earlier?" the blonde looked at her with big eyes and she could clearly see that he had no clue what she was talking about, so she carried on: "I mean with Kakashi – seemed like he wanted to hint at something…"

"Really? - When?"

"Well, when he said we should keep watch on the house; so is there anything I don't know yet?" She came to a halt and looked at the boy next to her until she could see it dawning on him.

"Ah! Now I know!" He looked around the hall, making sure no one was in earshot, before he turned back to her with a secretive expression on his face: "The first thing we realized when we came here, was that all the people in Yuki-Gakure are completely unfriendly – well you've met the one and only exception and if he's so much better than the rest… I doubt it… anyway you know, the guy for whom we are doing this mission is kind of suspicious as well, so we should keep an eye on him, too – just in case..."

"Suspicious?" Since she hadn't met the Kihimi yet and hardly knew anything about the things that had happened while they were gone, Sayuri couldn't picture in what way her client was distrustful, so her comrade started to explain: "Well, like he has apparently locked away his wife and has taken away all the food from his citizens – oh, and he has secret doors and gets up at four in the morning and so on…"

The violet-haired girl frowned as she scrutinized the Uzumaki: "So he's a tyrant, right?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it – and he sure is holding back something… as the talk came to his wife he got totally flustered up and escaped all our questions – oh and did you know that the whole civil war was started just for a woman?"

"What?!" Sayuri's eyes widened at that revelation, but Naruto just crossed his arms in front of his chest and nodded.

"Well, that's how it is, even though it's held secret." The Uzumaki exclaimed and they slowly carried on walking. "It all started with his marriage to – uhm… damn! What was her name again… I can't remember it, but she's his wife and he's keeping her hidden."

"So you think we should search for her? Maybe she could bring more clarity into the whole affair…"

"Yeah, maybe – we are supposed to search the house for any loopholes, anyway, so if she's here, we should be able to find her…"

"Mhm." The girl nodded while Naruto raised his arms and formed a few seals: "Tajû Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

With a puff of smoke, around twenty Naruto's appeared, all heading into different directions, while the real Naruto kept standing next to his team-mate and yawned loudly.

"So, where do we go?" He asked her, crossing his arms behind his head lazily, while he let his shadowclones do most of the work for him.

"I don't know, but certainly not here… if you want to hide things, you wouldn't do it somewhere in the entrance region; so either the cellar, or the upper floors – or she's not even here at all…" The Kunoichi pondered, but then turned around hastily as she heard some cursing, coming from behind them.

"You boy! What the hell was that?! What are you doing running around the whole mansion and what the hell are you doing here now anyway?! I've just seen you run past me! So why the bloody hell are you here now?!" Hideki, who had just turned the corner, barked at them, his head red with anger, but despite his volume, his choice of words and the terrifying amounts of saliva that escaped his mouth every time he opened it; his mumbling made it hard to take him seriously.

The two Konoha-nins looked at each other, but before they could even so much as reply to his question, he already yelled at them again: "And why the hell are you just standing around here? You are supposed to protect Jousuke-sama and you are getting damn well paid for it so-"

"- we _are_ doing our mission" Sayuri interrupted him and could see him bite his lip in anger, but she carried on nevertheless, even though her voice sounded a little thin now: "Right now, we are checking the mansion for any insecure spots, so if you don't mind, we'd like to carry on working…" After these words she just turned around and dragged Naruto, who looked completely bewildered, with her, trying to bring as much space between them and their former guide before he'd finally explode, which was as it seemed just a matter of seconds, because after they'd just turned the corner, they heard some loud, unintelligible curses that were clearly directed at them.

"Damn he's coming after us" Naruto exclaimed and pulled his team-mate, who was still dragging him after her, into a random room, were they stood pressed against the door until they heard the cloud of curses roll by.

"I told you they were all unfriendly here, you shouldn't provoke them…" The blonde looked at his team mate who had just turned around and was now scrutinizing the room with a smile on her face.

"Looks like we're in luck." She murmured and as Naruto turned around as well he knew what she meant: as they had run in, they had dishevelled the longish white rug, covering the white marble in the centre of the barely furnished room and underneath it, the edges of a small hatch had come to light.

…

…

The journey from the lighthouse to the prison, was by far the most annoying one he had ever made in his entire life. Even though it only took them about two hours to reach it, Yuudai filled it with enough chatter for at least two entire days. It was really remarkable how a person could talk so much without really saying anything at all… They were walking side by side, Sasuke carrying the unconscious body of the Yuki-nin they'd been able to capture, while his guide wandering next to him, had made it his business to inform his companion about his preferred workout methods, new hair-care products and fashion in the Land of Snow – a topic that was in his eyes paid way too little attention too and that was marked by many misunderstandings and wrong assumptions; until he eventually started to talk about women – apparently his favourite topic.

"Those two in your team… how are they?" He asked the raven-haired boy with an impish grin on his face, but since he hadn't reacted to a single one of his questions yet and apparently didn't plan to do so anytime soon, he just carried on: "They are both pretty classy and well-conditioned, I guess – I mean they are both Kunoichis, right? So how do they look without those thick coats, huh? I bet they have some awesome figures – we need to turn left here." He stated casually and since the man to his side reacted to this instruction, he at least knew that he was listening to him. "How do they fight – I mean what kind of techniques do they use?" He threw in casually, but as he noticed how the Uchiha narrowed his eyes warily, he started to divert the conversation to its previous course again. "Do you have a girlfriend?" His auburn hair was waving in the wind as he slightly turned his head to the side and fluttered his lashes at the Uchiha, but that one just stared uninterestedly ahead.

"Does that mean no? No need to be ashamed, seriously – I'll give you a few tips and you'll be hooked up in no time! So let's see… girls like compliments, seriously – just tell her that she has pretty eyes or that she smells good and she'll be yours in a flash, believe me! I know what I'm talking about… You know that pink-haired one – she isn't your girlfriend, right?!" Again not receiving an answer, he just took it as a no and carried on: "She fancies me, as does the other one, too, seriously… If I wanted to, I could have them–"

"We're there." Sasuke interrupted him as they reached a huge square grey building, with massive walls in front of it; obviously build to keep people from getting in or more importantly out.

"Oh, you're right…" Yuudai said absentmindedly, while he scratched his head sheepishly "I always loose my sense of time, when I'm having such an interesting conversation…"

Without another word, the Uchiha stepped to the entrance, which was immediately opened by a guard who had already recognized Yuudai from a distance and walked wordlessly ahead, until three other guards showed up and took the captive from him. They both followed the small group of people, until they had securely locked Kano in his cell, before they departed the prison again and came to a halt in front of it. Finally outside again, Yuudai inhaled deeply before he looked up at the Uchiha and asked: "So what's on now?"

"You'll take me to the Kihimi mansion." Sasuke stated in a nonchalant but firm voice and started walking, not even giving his guide the chance to protest against the order he had just been given.

As soon as Yuudai had caught up to the Konoha-nin again, he was eager to return to their previous conversation again, so he started: "So where did we stop? Ah – I know, those two, I mean they're like really –"  
"Just shut up." Sasuke directed a menacing glare at the man next to him, who swallowed hard and decided not to waste anymore words on this, as it was lousy conversational partner and so for him the journey back took at least twice as long as the one before and he really had to struggle hard on keeping quiet, since that was just completely against his nature, but something about the eyes of the Konoha-nin told him that he was no one to mess with and therefore he felt it was better to drop it.

…

…


	33. Behind the mission

**33. Behind the mission**

They were running through the upper floors of the Takume mansion, Pakkun following the trace of the woman that had been pushing the serving trolley, until they finally caught up to her. The two Konoha-nins and the small brown dog stayed several metres behind her, to make sure she wouldn't see them, but since she never turned around that wasn't really much of a challenge. She opened another door, which wasn't any different from any of the other ones in the corridor and vanished behind it.

The two Shinobi decided to wait a bit, before they carried on following her again, but after hardly more than two minutes, she came out of the room again and they noticed that her trolley was empty now. As soon as she was out of sight, the three exchanged some meaningful glances and after checking the hallway again, went to the door the servant had taken. To their relief it wasn't locked, so they went through it at once and found themselves in front of an old spiral staircase, made from massive flagstones, that was apparently leading to the attic. They cautiously went upstairs and soon reached another door with a lot of locks on it and something that looked a bit like a letter slot, just bigger. It was pretty obvious that this time they weren't so lucky, as to find the door open again.

"There's just one person behind it…" Pakkun informed them after taking a good sniff at the thick wooden door.

"Thank you, you can go now." The Hatake looked down at his ninja-dog who just nodded and then vanished in a puff of smoke.

"So what do we do now?" Sakura asked her Sensei in a low voice.

"We go in." He merely stated and drew a Kunai out of his pocket, with which he started picking the locks. As soon as he was done, they listened at the door for a few seconds before they finally opened it and scurried into the room.

"Who-who are you?" The blonde man, who had been eating at a small round table just opposite of the door, jumped up and by doing so knocked over the chair he'd been sitting on.

"You are Takume Masao!" Sakura stated open-mouthed - he was pretty much looking like on the pictures they'd been shown, just that in reality he appeared even younger than she had assumed him to be – he was probably just a couple of years older than she herself was.

"Yes, I am and who are you?" The blonde man asked them a bit calmer now, but still on guard.

"We are ninjas from Konoha-Gakure; we've been hired by Kihimi Jousuke to quench the revolt." Kakashi explained, earning a nod from Masao, who then asked them to sit down.

"Ehm, how come you are locked in here?" The pinkette asked him hesitantly, while she looked around the small, sparsely furnished room, with an uneasy expression on her face.

"That's quite a long story…" He sighed and looked out of the one tiny window with the thick rusty bars in front of it that threw a dim light into his small prison cell.

…

…

After they had gone down the stairs which had appeared, as soon as they had pulled the hatch open, Sayuri and Naruto found themselves in a dark hallway or rather tunnel; even though its walls and floor were made from white marble as were those in the rest of the house, there just wasn't one single source of light, except for the faint beam that came from upstairs. They warily walked through it, but it was completely empty; there was no furniture, no windows, no doors, nothing, and after they had walked for at least fifteen minutes, Naruto became impatient. "What the hell is that? Who needs a corridor when it's not leading to anything?" He asked his friend and his words echoed through the huge tunnel, revealing that they still hadn't reached the end of it by far.

"Don't know… Looks like some kind of emergency exit… guess I was wrong about the cellar, maybe we should just go back…" The violet haired girl murmured pensively, but the blonde just raised an arm, motioning her to be quiet.

"Did you hear that?" Naruto furrowed his brow and stared intently into the distance.

"Huh?" She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but then twitched as she too heard some noise, echoing towards them, apparently coming from the end of the hall. She looked at Naruto who then just nodded at her and they both started running towards the source of the sound.

"We're almost there." The Uzumaki stated as the hammering became slightly louder and they could even make out a weak, muffled voice, but it was too quiet to understand it, yet.

They ran and ran, the noise becoming louder the farther they came, until they finally reached the end of the corridor, which must have been situated deep under the ground, far away from the actual mansion, but much to their surprise there was nothing there; just a bleak white, or due to the darkness rather grey wall.

"Hello?!" Naruto hollered and again his voice ricocheted from one wall to the other, travelling through the entire corridor.

"I'm here." They heard a muted voice, coming from behind the wall in front of them and again they could perceive a soft hammering.

"How do we get there?" Sayuri asked and started examining the wall, until she came across a hardly visible square tile that stood out a little from the rest of the wall. "Found it." She stated and pulled out the tile, behind which was a tiny doorknob. The girl pulled at the handle and then shook her head at her comrade: "It's locked."

"I'll do that." Naruto grinned and summoned a shadow clone, who then bend over him and started doing some cat-like movements in front of the real Naruto's outstretched hand. A small blue energy ball appeared, consisting out of pure, concentrated Chakra and as soon as they were done, the clone disappeared again and Naruto slashed his Rasengan at a point right underneath the doorknob, destroying the lock and parts of the wall in an instant.

"That was unnecessary…" Sayuri sighed and reached for the doorknob, but pulled back at once, since she burnt her fingers as she touched it – Naruto's attack had released so much energy that it had even reached the handle, so she pulled her sleeve over her hand and went for it again, this time successfully. Almost half of the wall was turning inwards as she pushed it and the two Shinobi stepped into a huge, nicely furnished but utterly chaotic room, where they were already urgently awaited by the woman inside of it.

…

…

"So you know, who I am, don't you?" Masao asked the two Shinobi in front of him, still with his eyes directed out of the window.

"Yes, we do." Kakashi confirmed and waited for the Takume-heir to start talking again, but it took quite some time before he finally did so.

"Why do you think did this whole thing start – I mean the rebellion?" He picked his words carefully, finally turning around to face them and this time it was Sakura, who answered: "We already know that it is because of Tomomi – Jousuke-sama told us."

"Is that what he thinks? I see…"

"What do you mean by that?" Kakashi looked at him through sharp eyes, as Masao got up and started wandering through the room.

"It's not really wrong you know, I mean that's how it started, but that's not what it is about any longer. Did he tell you that she was my fiancée?"

Sakura's eyes widened at this revelation and the two Konoha-nins waited with held breaths for the Takume to carry on talking.

"We got engaged a short time before the Kihimi government was elected. As soon as Jousuke was in office, he made use of his new power and started blackmailing Tomomi and since she didn't want anyone to get harmed because of her, she finally gave in to him and they married. Of course I didn't want to acquiesce in that –so I've searched for ways to free her again. That's when my father came up. As the head of the Takume family he wouldn't accept this kind of humiliation – you know it had already gone public that Tomomi and I were going to get married, so this whole affair spattered our family's name…" With a sad expression, he looked down to the floor and let himself fall into his chair again.

"That's awful…" Sakura briefly laid a hand on his arm and looked at him encouragingly, trying to make him carry on talking.

"Mhm… you know, actually I didn't want my father to get involved in this, but I wasn't making any progress, so… well, I thought he was much more experienced than me, so it occurred to me that he might be more successful in achieving something… however he soon started to overdo things and even took violent measures, so I tried to stop him and told him that I wouldn't support his way of handling things – especially since everything was done on my behalf…"  
"So that's why he locked you here – because discrepancies in his own squad would make him look weak…" Kakashi pondered and earned a nod from the blonde.

"Reputation has always been everything to him… He's about to retire soon, you know and he wouldn't pass his legacy to someone who's been publicly disgraced."

"And he would even lock away his own son – unbelievable…" The pinkette murmured, absorbed in thoughts.

"Well… actually, I am not even his real son… He is unable to conceive a child… as he discovered that, he married my mother, who was pregnant at that time and claimed I was his offspring. I found out when I was 11 years old… you know he has never been a good father but from that time on, he didn't even bother to pretend any longer in front of me that I was his biological son – even though nothing of that ever reached the public… He's so desperate on not letting his name die out that he would even live a lie and hurt the people he is actually supposed to love, just for the sake of keeping his legacy alive…"

A depressed atmosphere filled the room and after this revelation, no one wanted to be the first one to break the silence, until Sakura found no way to avoid it and raised her voice hesitantly: "Soo… what does that mean for us now?"

"That means that we are not after Masao, but after his father, Takume Nobunaga…" Her Sensei explained and the Konoha-nins shot intent and a little worried looks at the Takume who was just sitting rigidly in his chair, until he eventually let his tongue wander over his dry lips and enquired in a dreary voice: "What will you do to him?"

"We won't kill him, that's for sure…" The Hatake reassured him. "What we'll do is clarify the situation and stop the civil war, but we might need your help for that…"

Kakashi looked at the Takume expectantly and after he gave a nod, even though it appeared rather apathetic, the grey-haired Jounin started to explain his plan to the other twos.

…

…

As soon as they had stepped into the room that had been hidden behind the wall, a really gorgeous, though rather dishevelled looking young woman with platinum blonde, almost white hair and radiant light grey eyes, came running towards them and threw herself in Naruto's arms at once.

"Oh god, finally…" She sobbed and looked affectionately into the blonde boys' eyes – however the very second their eyes met, her features turned into a horrified grimace and she pushed the Uzumaki away with a high-pitched scream. "You're not Masao – who the hell are you?!"

Naruto who was slightly befuddled because of her weird behaviour, pointed at his chest and then took a deep breath, before he started introducing himself with a winning smile on his face: "It is I, the future Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves: Uzumaki Naruto – here to safe the day!"

"Huh?" The blonde woman blinked a few times and cocked her head to the side, before she turned around and looked at the violet-haired girl that had just walked past her. "And who are you?" She asked, but the dark-haired Kunoichi didn't respond; she was so absorbed by the view that was presented to her that she didn't even realize that she'd been spoken to.

The room was much different from the rest of the huge mansion, it was held in rather pale colours again, but not entirely white this time and it has probably once been a really beautiful room – however now chaos was prevailing here: The battered furniture was thrown over and there were feathers flying around in the entire room. The bedclothes were lying in heaps in a corner of the room and there were some nasty but at least already dried food stains on the walls and floors.

"Ehm, this is Sayuri." Naruto eventually answered, after he had noticed that his team mate was apparently not addressable at the moment.

"Aha…" She eyed her critically but then turned to the blonde again as he asked her: "And who are you?"

"Me? I'm Tomomi." She stated and twitched in shock, as Naruto was suddenly standing in front of her and took both her hands into his.

"Really?! So we found you – that's awesome! Sayuri-chan, you heard that?"

"Huh?" She shot a confused glance at the Uzumaki who just sighed in annoyance and started informing his team mate: "That's Tomomi – you've been right about the cellar."

"Really? This confirms your suspicions then, right?" The violet-haired girl turned to Naruto, who just frowned and uttered an intelligent 'Eh?'.

"You thought that something was weird about that Lord, right? Well, apparently you've been right."

"Of course! So Tomomi-san, why are you imprisoned down here?"

"So that I couldn't run away…" The pretty woman directed her eyes to the floor and a sad expression took form on her face.

"Run away? From whom?" Naruto asked her, as it seemed completely clueless, so she enlightened him: "Well, from Jousuke of course."

"So you really were forced to marry him?"

"Tze – as if I'd even so much as go anywhere near that nasty roach voluntarily!" She snapped, clearly offended by that utterly ridiculous assumption.

Naruto just nodded in agreement and this time Sayuri addressed the Lord's wife: "But how could he get away with that?"

"Well he didn't really do so yet – that's why there is this turmoil outside. My fiancé has been trying to rescue me… one day he'd been able to send one of his men into this mansion; however he's been caught and since then I've been locked away down here…"

"That's horrible – we've received this mission about a week ago, so you must be down here even longer…" The blue-eyed Kunoichi pondered and looked up at Tomomi who just let herself fall into a pile of pillows right behind her and heaved an exhausted sigh.

"11 days by now… I feel like a bird in a gilded cage – you know he just married me because of my looks and so that he could humiliate the Takumes. He never loved me…tze – he never loved anyone but himself. I'm just something like an exhibition piece to him – you need to help me, I beg you…" Her last words were choked by some sobs that had started to escape her throat.

"Hey don't do that, please." Naruto moaned uneasily, since he hated seeing anyone cry; especially when it was a really pretty woman, so he hesitantly patted Tomomi's shoulder and tried to console her: "We'll find a way to fix everything, you'll see…"

"Really?!" She clasped her hands in front of her chest and looked at the blonde boy through glistening eyes, which were now lighted up with new hope.

"Of course! - we've dealt with worse… seriously this mission is a piece of cake, for a ninja of my calibre…" Naruto rubbed a finger under his nose, beaming with pride about the admiring glances Tomomi shot him.

"Sooo… what do we do?" Sayuri interrupted them and caused the other two to start up jerkily, since they had completely forgotten about the girl's presence.

"Why do you ask me?" Naruto frowned and pointed a finger at his chest.

"Thought you were the man with the plan." His team-mate sat down on the floor with crossed legs and looked expectantly at the blonde, as did the other woman too, only that her face also featured a touch of alarm, which she soon gave vent to.

"But you promised to help me! You said it was 'a piece of cake'-"

"Hey, easy now…" Naruto interrupted her and motioned the distressed woman with his arms to calm down. "I never go back on my word – that's my way of the ninja, just give us some time to think this over properly, okay?"

"Okay." She complied, still a little sceptical and trailed the Uzumaki with her eyes as he started wandering from one side of the room to the other. After he had done so for at least 10 minutes she had reached the end of her patience and finally asked him: "Soo? Did you come up with anything yet?"

"To tell the truth - no."

"But what have you been doing the entire time?!" She snapped at him in frustration, but the blonde just scratched the back of his head sheepishly and grimaced.

"Well let's just go through everything step by step, maybe we can think of something then…" Sayuri proposed and watched Naruto sigh in relief, as Tomomi's attention was transferred from him to his team-mate, so that he was no longer in the focus of her upset glares. He sat down as well and they all started reflecting about their momentary situation, which turned out to be far more difficult then they had expected.

…

…

The wind outside was roaring noisily and heavy dark-grey clouds, which also featured a tint of a brownish-red, which made them look even more daunting, were covering the sky, and even though it was just late afternoon, it was already fairly dark outside, except for some radiant light, which filled the round attic room every time a lightning emerged from the clouds. The two Konoha-ninjas and the Takume-heir had spent the last hour with planning their next move, until they were finally, at least to some extend, satisfied with it.

"Let's go then." Kakashi commanded and led the other two persons out of the room. As soon as they had departed it, the Jounin bolted the door again and turned to Masao: "I'll carry you, otherwise there won't be a way to get you out of this mansion unseen."

"Umm… okay then." He nodded hesitantly and climbed on the grey-haired man's back, who then walked after his student, who had just jumped out of the window opposite of the staircase.

"We are not taking this way, are we?" The blonde asked the Hatake, fairly uneasy, since the prospect of jumping out of the fourth floor gave him the chills.

"It's the shortest one." Kakashi replied and took a leap to the windowsill, where he kept standing for a while, since the Takume held him back: "Are you insane – that's suicide! Don't – AH!"

Kakashi had stepped over the windowsill and started casually walking down the walls of the huge mansion, not even minding the fact that the blonde had tightened his arms around his neck firmly enough to strangle an ordinary person, but since he wasn't anywhere near being ordinary, he didn't really mind though.

"You know, it defeats the purpose when you scream while sneaking out - it would be advisable to keep a low profile." The Hatake murmured in a nonchalant voice and the man on his back slowly opened his eyes, which he had pressed closed the entire time, since he was anticipating the oncoming impact, and opened his mouth in awe, as he realised that they were slowly and safely walking down the walls and had almost reached the ground by now.

"How are you doing this?"

"I concentrate Chakra into the soles of my feet and adapt it to the surface I'm walking on." He explained and jumped into a nearby tree, where Sakura was already waiting for them.

"Wow, that's cool." He exclaimed and looked at the pink-haired girl, who addressed her Sensei as soon as they had reached her: "I think we've gone unnoticed, but we should hurry nonetheless…" Her emerald eyes drifted back to the huge manor, seeking for any movement behind one of the numerous windows.

"You're right." Kakashi confirmed: "Let's go."

They both jumped from one tree to the next, and after they had finally left behind the Takume grounds, they eventually went to some deserted roads and Kakashi set the Takume-heir down again.

"So… do you know any place where you could stay for the next days – unnoticed?" The Jounin asked the blonde, who nodded hesitantly after a while: "I guess I could stay with Tomomi's parents… they wouldn't tell…"

"Good, we'll escort you to them. Make sure to stay there until we need you – got that?"

"Yes." He muttered: "This way." And so the trio set off again, kind of wary because of the bad weather, but at least the dim light gave them a better cover and the fact that they had pulled their hoods deep into their faces didn't look suspicious, too and no one would be able to identify that they were travelling with the missing son of a high politician. The first part of Kakashi's plan was working out perfectly and part two was solely about gathering the information the others had collected and creating part three according to them. So after they had safely delivered Masao at his fiancée's families' house and having ensured to him that those wouldn't be involved into anything going on at the moment – at least no more than they already were, they set off to meet the rest of their team at the Kihimi mansion again, just as they had agreed upon.

…

…

After Sasuke had successfully put Yuudai in his place, he hadn't uttered a single word on their journey back, not even when it was about leading the direction or something like that and you could clearly see that keeping quiet was seriously beginning to wear him out. So as soon as they finally, after an endlessly long appearing time, arrived their destination, the auburn-haired man threw himself at the next best person and started chatting with him, as if he was trying to make up for all the time he had had to shut up lately.

Without any kind of addressing or even looking at his guide, Sasuke walked past him and stepped through the huge gate, not minding the guards either, but as he had just taken a few steps into the huge corridor lying in front of him, he heard some loud, hurried steps coming after him.

"What will you do now?!" Yuudai had run after him and was now standing, heavily panting, with his arms rested on his knees right behind Sasuke who had come to a halt and was now glaring over his shoulder at his former guide.

"Mind your own business." Sasuke growled threateningly and Yuudai wasn't really sure, but he could have sworn that he had seen something red flicker in the Uchiha's actually deep black eyes, but since he had turned around again and carried on walking now, there was no way for him to check it up, so he just swallowed hard and decided to inform Lord Jousuke of what had happened that day – just like he was supposed to do.

Meanwhile Sasuke concentrated and tried to make out the chakra of his team-mates, but unlike some other shinobi, he wasn't able to track down the exact position of a person, but usually he was at least able to detect a vague direction. However his team-mates were well-trained and they were minding to suppress their Chakras, so the Uchiha wasn't able to sense them at all and therefore decided on inspecting the rooms, since that was one of their tasks anyway and wait for them to show up.

It was pretty impressive just how large this mansion was; from its construction it kind of reminded of some of Orochimaru's former hideouts - however it was far less interesting, than those were…

He was just passing through another corridor, when some movement on the outside, caught his attention. He turned to the left and walked to the next window, from which he had a good view of the inner yard, where he could see a group of at least ten people, loading some boxes into a depot. He knew at once that those cases were filled with the food, the Kihimi was withholding from his citizens, but since that was not really relevant for their mission, he turned away again and carried on walking down the hallway. As he just came past the next fork, he heard some voices, coming from somewhere to his left, so he turned to that side and soon faced a group of five people walking straight towards him.

"Who is this?" A pompously dressed man asked Hideki, who was standing to his right, but that one just shrugged with a sour expression on his face and glared at the raven-haired man.

"This is Uchiha Sasuke, one of the Konoha-ninjas you have hired, Jousuke-sama." Yuudai, who was standing on the left side of his Lord answered, bowing down submissively, while he shot an almost impish glance at Sasuke.

"So you quitted being lost then? – Good to know…" Jousuke snorted scornfully, before he nodded to the men next to him and walked with his nose high in the air and directly followed by his bodyguards past the Uchiha, who just looked unimpressed ahead, until he sensed a sudden flash of chakra, which made him narrow his eyes slightly and look into the direction it had come from.

"Before I forget it-" The Kihimi and his squad came to a stop and turned to the Uchiha, who still had his back turned to them and apparently didn't plan to change that any time soon.

"Will you turn around, you insolent brat!" Hideki barked at him, but Sasuke just looked nonchalantly over his shoulder to their little group, waiting for further instructions.

With a rather cross expression on his face, Jousuke finally completed his sentence, since he was reluctant to waste any more time with just standing around: "You are to deliver all the information you have been able to gather to me or one of my men and give a detailed report about all actions you have taken – that's about it." The second the Kihimi had finished talking, Sasuke began walking again, what caused everyone to look at him with a kind of staggered and resentful expression – except for Yuudai at least, who was again wearing a sly grin on his face.

…

…

"We should go now – the rest of our team should have arrived by now…" Sayuri stated after they had discussed their situation for quite some time, hardly achieving any results, since most parts of their mission were still too obscure to unveil yet.

"Yeah, you're right" Naruto nodded: "otherwise our clients will probably think we're taking a nap somewhere or just laze about on their costs – I wouldn't put it past them…" His beforehand cheerful expression turned into a sullen one and a bitter smile appeared on his face, while both Sayuri and Tomomi nodded grimly.

"So, what about me?" The Lord's wife asked, as she observed how both ninjas had gotten to their feet and were just about to leave again.

"Ehm…" The blonde furrowed his brow and looked questioningly at his female team-mate, who frowned slightly before she hesitantly raised her voice. "Well… I guess you'll have to stay here for now…"  
"What! You can't do that! You can't just leave me here imprisoned like an animal! Please…" She turned to Naruto and looked at him through big watery eyes, causing him to swallow hard, before he looked, a little distracted and clearly uneasy, at the dark-haired Kunoichi: "Why can't we free her just now, again?"

"Because, you said that Jousuke-sama didn't want us to meet his wife and since he is our client we are not supposed to do anything against his orders – and kidnapping his wife would be a bit thick…"

"But you promised to get me out of here; you said you'd never go back on your word…" The pretty woman's lips jutted out into a pout and she started to sob bitterly, causing Sayuri to carry on, with a sympathetic expression on her face,: "We will – hopefully – it's just not that easy… we can't act directly… you'll stay here for now and we'll talk to the others about what to do, just make sure not to tell anyone that we've been here, okay?"

"Hmm…" Tomomi nodded, still a little sceptical, but at least she had regained her poise again.

"If Naruto hadn't smashed the lock, it would be easier to conceal that we've been here." She turned to the chaos-ninja who just scratched his head with a bashful grin and asked: "You're having visitors often, Tomomi-san?"

"Just the guy that brings my food…"

"Ah, the one on the walls…" Naruto looked around the room and cramped all of a sudden, since the mentioning of food had made him again aware of the fact that his stomach was completely empty and the following loud growl also informed the others about that fact. "Maybe we can assail the food-man… then he wouldn't see the broken lock and maybe I could get something to eat, too – it would be like killing two birds with just one stone! What do you think?"

"That would be too conspicuous, but seriously now – what do we do about the lock?"

"Well, we can't replace it, right? So how about we just fake it?" The blonde shinobi's statement was met by some uncomprehending glances, so he carried on: "Can't you put some Gen-jutsu on the door or something? So that it just looks as if the lock was still there?"

"Oh… yes, I guess I could, but I don't think I have enough chakra to hold it for long… When will this guy show up, Tomomi-san?" Sayuri asked the other girl, who looked at a small clock with a cracked display, that was lying on the floor near her bed.

"In an hour, I guess" She finally answered, while Naruto shot a hopeful glance at his team-mate: "So? Can you do that?"

"I think so… I'll try my best…" She sighed, before the two Konoha-nins left the completely chaotic prison-room and kept standing in front of it. They both looked at the fairly battered door and Sayuri started to form a couple of seals and murmured: "Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu"

An illusionary layer started to emerge, right at the centre of the wall and spread in a circular wave, until it covered the entire wall and hid every sign of the damage done by the chaos ninja.

"That should do." The blonde nodded in approval. "Let's go then."

They both walked in a quick pace through the corridor until they eventually reached the end of it. As soon as they had walked up the stairs again and departed the room it was hidden in, they heard some voices coming from somewhere at the beginning of the hallway.

"Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically and started waving with his arms, as he caught sight of his two other team-mates that had just entered his visual field.

"You want to deafen us, dobe?" Sasuke, who had just appeared behind the small group of people, groaned with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Teme!" The Uzumaki shrieked appalled, but before he could add anything, he was interrupted by his team-leader: "Good, then we are all back together." Kakashi looked from one person to the next, before he carried on in a low voice: "Found out anything…?"

They exchanged some meaningful looks, but left it at that, since some of the things weren't really meant for anyone to hear, so they went back to the boys' room and informed each other about the latest discoveries.

…

…

"Seems like things are finally starting to add up…" Naruto stated after they had discussed what they've been able to find out thus far. "So we'll just capture that Nobunaga guy and the whole riot will just collapse like a house of cards…" The blonde grinned and got to his feet, eager for some action, but his Sensei held him back.

"It won't be as easy as that – as I've been eavesdropping on them, they've been discussing on whether they should carry out their emergency plan or not – however from the little I've heard I haven't been able to make out what this plan is about… but it has been a rather heated discussion, therefore we must assume that they are taking drastic measures, so we should stop them before it's too late."

"But that's exactly what I'm saying!" Naruto threw in, louder than necessary. "We'll just go for them before they even realize what happens!"

"And what about Tomomi – we can't help her by merely stopping the Takumes… she'd still be stuck with Jousuke then…" Sayuri reminded the blonde, who then just dropped his head with a sigh.

"You got a point there… but what if we just free her and make it look like she escaped by herself or something…" He pondered but the pinkette just shook her head.

"That would be strictly against our mission and even if we'd free her, what kind of life would she lead? She would have to spend her days hiding from her husband – maybe she would even have to leave the Snow Country and her family behind … there must be another way to deal with this…" Sakura finished and looked into the faces of her team-mates, however none of them seemed to have a solution for this problem, so she carried on: "I guess we'll just have to make him give up on her… that's the only way…"

"You're right." The Hatake confirmed. "But from what we now about him that's going to be pretty tough…"

"So what do we do now?" Sayuri broke the pensive silence that had spread after Kakashi's words.

"We'll focus on the immediate threat – since we don't know what they are planning to do, we will split into two teams. Naruto, Sayuri since you've had more time to look around in the mansion, you'll be Team One – your task is to protect the mansion and guard Jousuke-sama. The rest of us, Team Two, will keep watch on the Takume mansion and take action if necessary. Got that?"

"Hell no!"

Naruto was the first to answer, even though it wasn't the kind of reply Kakashi had expected to this actually rhetorically meant question. "Why do I always have to do the boring tasks, seriously?!" The blonde crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked sulkily at his Sensei.

"Because you have a better general view of this mansion and besides, if anything is going to happen today at all, it's most likely going to be here, so you didn't get the boring task at all." The Hatake explained and earned a rather sceptical look from his student, but he was keeping quiet at least and that was about as much as the Hatake could have hoped for.

…

…

After Team Two had left, Naruto and Sayuri made their way to the Kihimi, to inform him about what was going on at the moment and about some of the things they had found out, just as they've been ordered to do. They went into the main hall, where they expected Lord Jousuke to be, however the only one they found there was the man from this morning, the one that had also disturbed the Uzumaki's sleep and led them to their ridiculous breakfast.

"What do you want?" He stated, as unfriendly as ever, what took the unknowing Sayuri by surprise, since she still didn't seem to have grasped that this was the way the people from Yuki-Gakure were talking in general.

"We need to see Jousuke-sama." She stuttered, slightly uneasy and the Uzumaki added in an arrogating voice: "And be quick about it!"

"Tze…" The man grunted and narrowed his eyes, but nevertheless turned around and did as he was told, even though he left the room in a pointedly slow pace.

About twenty minutes later Jousuke, followed by Hideki, entered the hall and the Kihimi sat down on his throne, from where he shot a rather annoyed glance at the two shinobi.

"What is it now?" He asked, clearly impatient, while Naruto had a hard time to hold back his anger, since the Kihimi's attitude always managed to make his blood boil in an instant. So while he was gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, Sayuri cleared her throat and drew everyone's attention to herself.

"We have reason to believe that the Takumes are planning something, so, to ensure your safety it would be advisable for you to stay close to us, Jousuke-sama."

"Reason to believe…? Like what?" The Kihimi frowned and scrutinized the two shinobi in front of him.

"Kakashi-sensei has been able to overhear one of their conversations – he hasn't been able to grasp much of it, but he still thinks they are up to something… So we need to secure this place right now and if you value your life, you should stick close to us, no matter what!" The Uzumaki explained agitatedly, without taking the time to breathe between his words. The Kihimi wrinkled his nose as he eyed the now breathless ninja and yawned demonstratively before he replied: "Do you really think that I would spend my precious time with someone like you, just because of the vague assumptions of a one-eyed weirdo? I don't think so –" He got up and turned his back to the completely aghast Konoha-nins, so he didn't see how Sayuri had to hold back her growling team-mate, who was just about to attack their client. "Since you have assured for multiple times that you are highly skilled ninjas, it shouldn't pose a problem to you to guard me from a good distance, right?"

He was just about to leave, completely ignoring the ranting from the blonde ninja, who had completely lost control over himself, when an ear-splitting blow shook the entire mansion and caused the ceiling to crumble down over their heads.

…

…


	34. Enemy contact

**34.**** Enemy contact**

The deafening noise of the explosions, which had apparently occurred somewhere in the rooms right behind the main hall, which means most likely in Lord Jousuke's private rooms, was only drowned out by the ear-splitting shrieks of the Kihimi, who had sought shelter underneath the small table in front of his throne, the very second the first blast had run through the huge building.

This first detonation had already caused a lot of damage to the foundation of the mansion and had literally made the ceiling collapsed above their heads. Nevertheless, it had soon been followed by two other ones, though their noise was rather hollow, since the din of the first one had been loud enough to impair their hearing, so even as the explosions had stopped, the obtrusive squeak that remained in their ears kept the four people in the throne hall deaf for the most part.

People started rushing into the hall; all screaming in a wild frenzy, apparently as deafened and confused as they were themselves, but Naruto and Sayuri jumped to the still screaming and apparently dead scared Kihimi and shielded him from about everyone who might pass him, while Naruto formed a few hand signs and a moment later, a bunch of his Shadowclones ran out of the hall and started checking the adjacent rooms.

"Out of here!" Sayuri shrieked at the top of her voice, but wasn't even able to hear her own words, so she didn't really think anyone else had heard her either, therefore she just motioned Naruto to take the Kihimi with him and get out of the hall.

Not really keen on this task, the Uzumaki just played dumb, pretending he hadn't understood her and instead of bringing his client to safety, he just signalled his team-mate to stay back and rushed straight into the centre of the turmoil.

"Naruto-kun, wait!" The violet-haired girl shrieked, but to no avail. She just watched the back of the blonde boy's cloak – or rather Sasuke's cloak – and sighed, before she grabbed their client by his arm, who as a result started to lash about in shock and hit the Kunoichi in her face, making her tumble backwards slightly. As she had recovered herself again, she grasped, both his wrists and tried to clam him down, however since he was still unable to hear – another thing that scared him to death, that didn't really work and he just carried on panicking and desperately gripped the girls upper arms in search for shelter.

"Calm down!" She shrieked, completely caught off guard by the Kihimi's behaviour, who was still clutching her sleeve like a scared child – there was no sign of his former arrogant attitude left anymore. She gripped for his hands and released his completely cramped fingers from the fabric of her cloak, then she looked straight into his bleary eyes and motioned him to take a deep breath in, before she started leading him out of the room. As soon as they had started moving, they were directly followed by his adherents, who soon formed a cluster around them and shielded their lord from all sides.

She wasn't really sure yet, where she should lead him to, since she didn't really know how many opponents they were opposing and where the attacks had come from, in the first place, therefore she just guided him away from the noise, until they arrived a corridor, she had been in before. Gripping the Kihimi by his arm, she pulled him right through a door, which led into a dark, barely furnished room, while the rest of the people, except for the overly attentive Hideki, didn't seem to notice their absence and just kept on running ahead.

"What are we doing here?!" Jousuke shouted and this time Sayuri was finally able to hear him; at least to some extent.

"We need to go to Tomomi!" She yelled back and was once again confronted by the Kihimi's completely shocked expression.

"What?!" He shrieked, cupping a hand around his ear and bending closer, signalling that he hadn't heard her, even though he had a pretty good idea of what she meant, considering where they were at the moment...

"To Tomomi!" She replied as loud as she could and this time her words seemed to have reached him.

"How do you know where she is?" He stuttered, with a clearly audible trace of anger in his shaky voice.

Instead of searching for an excuse that might explain why they had opposed the actually strict instructions they'd been given, the girl just shrugged, before she pulled up the hatch and started walking down the stairs in a quick pace.

…

…

They were jumping from tree to tree, through the dim greyish light, thrown by the moon when it was occasionally able to peek through the thick cloud cover that covered the dark night sky. Kakashi and his team didn't encounter a single soul on their way to the Takume mansion, but that didn't surprise them too much, since it would be pretty risky to go out in the darkness at times of war.

As soon as they had intruded the Takume-estate, they noticed at once that there were far more guards now, than there had been just a couple of hours ago and that fact made them rather wary.

Anxious to avert any mistakes that might make the watchmen aware of their presence, they cautiously sneaked into the fortress of a building and started looking for anything that might indicate that the Takumes really were scheming something.

After having searched through the entire house, for not even half an hour, they noticed a man, running around in sheer excitement, apparently looking for someone. They decided to follow him, what soon turned out to have been the right decision – after a couple of minutes, he apparently found the person he'd been searching for and ran straight towards him. Heavily breathing he came to a stop in front of the man, who was dressed in the same ninja-gear, the Yuki-nin they had interrogated had worn, too, and stated, still breathless, in an agitated voice: "He's done it – he blew it all up, everything worked out flawlessly!"

"Understood. I'll inform Nobunaga-sama, about it personally – your services are no longer needed." The Yuki-nin stated in a very calm and clear voice, that didn't really seem to fit to his rather dishevelled and kind of gloomy appearance. After these words, he just walked past his informant, not deigning to look at him again and after exchanging some meaningful looks, the three Konoha-nins went right after him. They soon came into a long corridor, where they found five guards, standing in orderly rows in front of a huge wooden double-wing door, with faces as grim as if they'd just bitten into a lemon.

"Get ready…" Kakashi looked expectantly at his two students who were crouching next to him, as the Yuki-nin was only a few metres away from the door. Consequently, Sasuke stepped boldly into the open, staring at the perplexed guards, through blood-red Sharingan and before they could even do so much as utter a single word, they were already trapped in the Uchiha's Genjutsu and Kakashi used the time they were distracted to throw senbons at them, aiming for an acupressure point that caused them to loose their consciousness at once, while Sakura used her Medical-Ninjutsu to sedate them. With blank eyes, the bunch of guards and the Yuki-nin fell to the floor and didn't stir a finger anymore. As soon as they were done, the three ninjas listened for any sign that might indicate that they had been discovered, but the deep silence filling the corridor remained unbroken, so they gathered around the unconscious men and scrutinized them carefully.

"All right…" The Hatake nodded and turned over the Yuki-nin they had followed before. After having examined him closely, he formed a few seals and murmured: "Henge no Jutsu."

The next second he was the perfect image of the Yuki-nin and looked through pale brown eyes that were partly covered by his messy black hair, at his two students. "You keep watch on them, while I'll go in – make sure to keep anyone from entering this corridor, otherwise our cover is blown."

Running a finger over the deep scar, which spread from his left eyebrow over his nose to his right malar bone, and made his already repugnant face even look grimmer, Kakashi straightened his vest and walked in the same scuffing manner, the real Yuki-nin had displayed before, towards the now unguarded door and after making sure that none of the bodies could be seen from inside of the room, he went right into it and found himself in front of the head of the Takume-clan and three other men that didn't really look like ordinary watchmen at all.

…

…

"Hey, wait!" The Kihimi, directly followed by Hideki, ran after the violet-haired girl and gripped for her shoulder as he finally caught up to her. "Tell me right now, why you know about this place!"

"It was our job to secure this mansion, so we checked every single corner – including this _prison_…" She emphasized that word to voice her opinion, concerning this topic, while a deprecatory grimace crossed her face. "How many people know about this place?"  
"Including you?" Jousuke asked inanely and somewhat disapproving, before he added in a more neutral tone: "Just three – me, Hideki and the cook."

"So you should be safe down here…" Sayuri pondered and increased her speed, so it became harder for Jousuke and his elderly subordinate to keep up with her.

"Safe?!" The Kihimi looked at her with a bewildered expression, as if he doubted the girl's sanity. "Tomomi is gonna rip me into pieces – I'd have a higher chance of survival, if you'd tie me to one of the bombs, right before its detonation!"

Sayuri didn't reply to this statement and so the sound of their footsteps that echoed through the huge corridor and some irrelevant questions posed by the Kihimi every once in a while, where the only sounds that were heard for quite some time.

As they reached the end of the hall, Sayuri noticed that her Gen-jutsu had already faded, so she walked straight to the mangled door handle and pulled the door open. Tomomi came running towards her right away and asked with a concerned expression on her face: "What happened? I heard some noise… and… then…-" She slowly cut off in mid-sentence, as she caught sight of her husband, who had just sheepishly poked his head through the doorframe and stared at her with a slightly uneasy expression.

"YOU!" She screamed agitatedly and started striking the Kihimi, who lifted his hands in front of his head, to shield his face, from the surprisingly hard punches coming from his actually rather thin and lanky wife.

"Enough, now." Hideki intervened and dragged the furious woman away from his master.

"We should be safe from the bombs down here – they wouldn't detonate them near the woman they are actually trying to free… if that's still what they are up to at least… anyway, they might come here searching for her so we shouldn't let our guards down." Sayuri advised them and as if to confirm her statement, they heard the echo of footsteps, coming straight towards them.

"Bombs – what bombs?!" Tomomi asked in surprise, but was shushed by the Kunoichi, who drew a Kunai and positioned herself in front of the entrance, while the others, who had now noticed the sound too, started to hide themselves as best as possible.

The person was only a few metres away now, Sayuri was even able to hear his ragged breathing and the second he passed through the door, the girl threw her Kunai at him, but missed by a hairbreadth.

"Wow, Sayuri – are you trying to kill me?!" Naruto looked in shock at his team-mate, who just stuttered, completely taken aback: "N-Naruto-kun…? What are you doing here? I thought you were upstairs, fighting the enemies…"

"I am! You need to see this – hurry up!" He ordered her excitedly and vanished in a puff of smoke the next second.

"A bunshin…?" Sayuri looked slightly perplexed at the spot, Naruto had been standing on, just a couple of seconds ago, before she turned around and looked at the admittedly badly hidden people, she was supposed to protect.

"What now?" Tomomi asked, as she poked her head out of the pile of pillows she had been hiding in and looked into the pensive face of the Kunoichi.

"I'll build up the Gen-jutsu to hide this door again and go upstairs. You stay here – I'll make Naruto send another shadow clone down here as soon as I reach him." She informed them and started rushing out of the room, in order to find out what Naruto had been able to discover.

…

…

This was a risky venture – Kakashi neither knew anything about the person he was pretending to be, nor about the relationship he had with the people in this room – he didn't even now as much as his name or his actual task… he just hoped his cover wouldn't be blown before he was able to learn anything about the plans of the Takumes.

"Ah, Koukei – what is it now?" A very tall, dark-haired man, standing to the right of Nobunaga, directed at him, with a boastful grin on his face.

"I'm supposed to tell you that everything's been taken care of." He stated, trying to make his voice sound as smooth and clear as the one of the real Koukei and since none of the people in the room made any remark about his appearance, he was confident that they hadn't noticed anything, at least not yet…

"No incidents?" The lacking curiosity in the Takume's voice made clear that he didn't really expect there to be any, but he asked nevertheless.

"None – everything worked out perfectly." Kakashi answered and directed his eyes to the left, where one of the other ninjas that had been strolling from one side of the room to the other in an overly nervous manner, all the time playing with something he was holding in his hands, raised his voice: "Of course everything went fine – after all, it was my plan to infiltrate a mole into the Kihimi mansion…"

Kakashi tried not to show his surprise at this revelation and didn't look up either, as the tall man started guffawing loudly and said in a mocking voice: "Tze, if it hadn't been for your stupid idea, we would have been done here weeeekkksss ago."

He made a sweeping gesture as he stretched that word and a sardonic grin appeared on his face, as he noticed that his words hadn't failed their effect: A rigid and tense expression froze on the addressed person's face and he dropped the little wooden figure he'd been fidgeting with, before he drew a huge sword from under his cloak, which he then pointed at the other man, who was just about to draw a weapon as well, but was interrupted.

"Cut it out, you two" Nobunaga scolded them, as if they were some quarrelling children "I won't allow you to kill each other before your job is done… You haven't forgotten that Jousuke has hired some ninjas as well. Depending on how skilled they are, he might still be alive and we'd have to expect them to show up here soon…"

"So what…? – from what our spy has told us they are just a bunch of kids – nothing to worry about and besides the twins are keeping watch on the mansion, they'll make sure that no one leaves it alive…" The dark-haired ninja next to the Takume boasted, so self-assertive that he didn't notice how the Hatake twitched slightly, but his statement earned a grunt from the man he'd been arguing with before.

"If I was in your position I wouldn't let my guard down like this – someone like you sure can't afford that…" He snarled and before another quarrel could arise, Nobunaga calmed them down again.

"Koukei – order the guards outside to be on the lookout for some suspicious looking individuals… from what we know they are three men and two women and order someone to keep watch on the route leading to the Kihimi mansion as well… just in case…" The Takume instructed Kakashi, who then turned around and was just about to leave the room, relieved that everything had worked out so well, but then he came to a halt, as the last of the three ninjas – the one that hadn't said anything yet, raised his voice: "There won't be any need to – they are closer than you might think…" While he said that he already drew a couple of Kunais and threw them at the Hatake, who just cursed and jumped to the side.

"Damn!" The other two ninjas swore simultaneously and drew their weapons once again, but this time didn't aim them at each other, but at the Hatake, who was now cornered at a wall, far away from the door.

"Hurry! He might not be alone!" The Takume bellowed, while he was putting some distance between himself and the place of action.

With an apparent air of superiority the two squabblers planted themselves right in front of Kakashi, both wearing equally arrogant grins on their faces, while the man that had uncovered the Hatake's disguise remained close to the Lord of the Takume-clan, not seeming too interested in joining the battle.

"What did you do to Koukei, huh?" The big man asked him, not able to keep the amusement out of his voice, but as he didn't get an answer he just grunted and raised his Kunai, which he pointed right into the direction of the Hatake.

They were just standing completely self-assured in front of the Konoha-ninja, trying to intimidate him by merely looking at him, but their underestimation of his skills was just what Kakashi needed; it gave him time to analyze their movements and think through his situation. They hadn't been exactly loud, so no noise should have reached his two team-mates outside – however once they really began to fight, they should be able to sense their Chakra and come to support him. It might be a hasty conclusion, but he doubted that those two ninjas in front of him were that much of a challenge; they didn't seem to be the brightest ones, so he should be able to beat, or at least put them off, until the rest of his team came in. However that other one… he hadn't even seen him in action yet, but he was sure that he was of a completely different calibre than those two in front of him – after all he was the one who had been able to see through his disguise at once and he wasn't throwing himself haphazardly into a battle – he sure was no one to be underestimated…

Anyhow, right now he had to concentrate on his immediate opponents – since they were outnumbering him, it would be risky to venture a direct attack, however he didn't plan on just standing in front of these two grinning monkeys for the rest of the day, so if they didn't do anything soon, he'd just have to attack them first, whether he liked it or not…

As his patience slowly but surely left him, he gripped into his side-pouch to draw some Kunai, but the second his fingers reached the fabric of his bag, the two enemy-ninjas dashed at him and without even bothering about the fact that the Hatake was still looking like their comrade, they rammed their weapons into his body and observed with sanguinary delight, how his eyes widened, the moment their blades pierced his skin.

…

…

After having rushed through the exaggeratedly huge corridor as fast as she could, Sayuri eventually arrived the main hall, where she came to a stop behind a small assembly of people. After having recollected herself, since the long run had left her quite breathless, she scrutinized the apparently upset lot in front of her, until she was able to make out a tuft of bright yellowish-blonde hair and pushed herself past the group of people until she arrived in the centre of the gathering, where she found the owner of the blonde shock of hair.

"Naruto-kun – what's going on?" She asked, still completely clueless, until her eyes fell on the man, who sat tied up on the floor at the feed of two guards that pointed some dangerously sharp looking lances to the back of his neck. She wasn't really able to see much of the man, since his face was turned to the floor and his features were covered by some messy strands of his long, silky brownish-hair, but still Sayuri knew at once, who was sitting in front of her.

"Yuudai? What the-" She started but fell silent, as the said person's head slowly turned up a little and he threw a mischievous glance at the Kunoichi in front of him, the fact that his face was still mostly covered by his hair just underlining the dangerous and wild presence he was emitting. His former movie-star smile had vanished completely and had been replaced by a haughty sneer that contorted his features in a way that made them seem almost brutish and not sleek and pleasant anymore like they used to look.

"How's it going?!" He leered mockingly and tried to erect himself, but earned a blow in the neck that made him slump down again, with a guttural growl that just added to his animal-like appearance.

"We caught him as he was trying to escape…Can you believe that he is the bomb plotter? That bastard's been working for the Takumes all along-" Naruto finally started to explain the situation with a grim expression on his face.

"As if…" Yuudai grumbled, but Naruto just rolled his eyes: "Don't mind him, he's a liar – and a pretty bad one…"

"Hmm… you think…?" Sayuri threw a pensive look at the man in front of her, sizing him up carefully.

"What do you mean? It's pretty obvious if you ask me!" The blonde frowned and grimaced as he heard their captive chuckle self-complacently.

"I don't know… it's a bit vague, don't you think? I mean like why would they infiltrate a spy to plant a bomb, when they could have also bombed the whole mansion from the outside, with much less effort and probably more success – after all, he failed to kill Jousuke-sama, right? - so why all these intricate actions?" Sayuri pondered and looked questioningly at Yuudai, however instead of answering, he just carried on chuckling haughtily and craned his neck leisurely, as if he was completely alone in the room and not surrounded by a bulk of heavily armed and above all hostile men.

"Hellooo?!" Naruto poked the tip of his foot into their captive's rips and perched down right next to him, trying to build up eye-contact, but failing completely, as Yuudai was careful to avoid his gaze; especially as Naruto started to jump around in front of his face in the vain attempt to force him to look at him. He endured for quite some time, but as it eventually went too far for the auburn-haired man and he got tired of this silly game, he simply closed his eyes and sat there, as solemnly as a Buddha, if it wasn't for his wild appearance, completely ignoring the fact that he was still held captive in enemy territory.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" Naruto was slowly but surely getting impatient and clenched his fists, in a desperate attempt to retain his self-control, even though their captive's autocratic and indifferent attitude made his blood boil.

"Teme! I won't repeat what she just said, so why did you do it?" In fact he wouldn't have been able to repeat all she had said, but he knew it had been something important and therefore he still stared at Yuudai, waiting for an answer, but instead of accommodating the blonde boy's request, to top it all he started humming to himself, while his sneer grew wider and wider each passing second.

"You bastard..." Naruto growled menacingly, while he rolled up his sleeves and cracked his knuckles demonstratively. As he was just about to grip for their captive's collar, Sayuri held him back however and crouched down to Yuudai as well.

"You've been here for quite a while I guess, all the time planning your coup, but when it came to it, you failed – why?"

This finally caused him to react; he slowly raised his head a little and opened his eyes again, before he turned them to the girl in front of him, but didn't move thereafter. He was almost looking like a sculpture, his features seemed to have frozen completely, even though it was obvious that he had a hard time with holding up his crumbling smile and a menacing look flashed over his eyes.

"God – as he was still on our side I wanted nothing more as for him to shut up, but now that he does, I just want to beat the crap out of him to make him talk!" Naruto sighed, dropping his head in annoyance, but lifted it up again, as he perceived some boisterous laughter, filling the entire hall. With a frown on his face, he watched the now shaking with laughter figure of Yuudai, who seemed to have gone entirely mad.

"Don't think we get anything out of him without our interrogation-specialists…" The blonde shinobi pondered aloud, making their captive twitch slightly at the mentioning of them. Naruto hadn't failed to notice that little motion and narrowed his eyes cunningly, before he started to revive the memories of Kano's interrogation again.

"The Sharingan is nothing to take on lightly… it messes with your brain until you no longer know where is up and where down… anyway once they are here you end up talking, so it's up to you – either you tell us what this is all about and keep your wits, oooorrr you wait until they come back and babble away your story like a drunkard. So? What do you prefer?"

A victorious smile started to graze the blonde boy's lips, as he heard the man in front of him cuss in defeat, before he growled something that sounded a little like 'fine'…

"Good…" Sayuri smiled and shot an impressed look at Naruto, who had once again proven that he deserved his title as the number-one-most-unpredictable-ninja in the Hidden Leaf.

…

…


	35. Tough fights

**35.**** Tough fights**

Koukei, or rather Kakashi looked down at himself and stared at the huge and especially broad sword, which was now sticking in the middle of his stomach. He turned his head up to his attackers again and stared at them through bulging eyes, before he vanished with a plop and instead of their comrade there was now a heavy olive backpack skewered to the wall, right in front of the two ninjas that had been hired by the Lord of the Takume-clan.

"What?!" They looked rather appalled at the bag before them, as if they still hadn't comprehended what had just happened - again confirming Kakashi's former suspicion of them not being the brightest ones… So as they had only just started to move again and drew their weapons out of the wall, the Hatake - in his original appearance - emerged right behind them, holding a hand in front of his body, from where bright, twittering flashes of chakra arose, tinting the whole room in a flickering bluish light. He aimed his Chidori at the smaller one, since the poor guy had unfortunately spun around on his heels that very second and directed it right at his upper chest, before he even had the chance to defend himself. The Jounin felt that he had made contact with the man's skin, however just briefly and then he was unable to move and his Chidori expired slowly, while the dark-haired man in front of him clutched the shallow wound on his chest, while he dropped to his knees and was therefore out of the Hatake's reach.

"What the-?" Kakashi cursed in bewilderment, before he looked at his now outstretched arm and noticed that the man, who had been protecting Nobunaga was now standing right next to him, holding his wrist in an iron grip and having placed a Kunai at the grey-haired man's gorge, without him even having noticed it.

Still scrutinizing the man with a shocked expression, Kakashi thought of ways how to free himself, as he heard how the door was being opened and his two team-mates, apparently alarmed by the sudden surge of chakra, rushed into the room. As they caught sight of their Sensei and realized his desperate plight, they came to a halt and observed their three opponents carefully.

Sasuke noticed at once that he had seen the man next to Kakashi before, it was the one that had been with Kano and the red-head, when they had encountered them for a second time. He was still wearing his black leather jacket and the same brown pants, he'd been dressed in at that time - he even had the same bored expression plastered all over his face, so there was no doubt that it was him. Seems like they shouldn't have let him go back then...

"Tessai. Rensuke. Protect Nobunaga." That man ordered the other two ninjas, which seemed to be of a subordinate rank, since they obeyed his instructions at once, despite the fact that one of them was injured… They planted themselves in front of their client, which had yielded into the farthest away corner of the room, but still wore a supercilious grin on his face.

Kakashi used the time his enemy was occupied with giving orders, to jerk his upper body backwards, so that he could put some space between his throat and the Kunai and tried to kick against his opponent's arm, however that one pulled it back in time, so actually Kakashi's attack had missed, but he was nevertheless free now, so it didn't really matter that much…

Once he was released, the Jounin jumped to the back and landed right beside his students, where he shook his wrist he was still holding with his other hand and moved it in circles to get rid off the numb feeling that had spread through it.

"Are you okay, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura enquired, keeping her watchful eyes fixed on their opponents, who had stepped backwards to stand in front of the man they were supposed to protect.

"Yes." He nodded, never lifting his eyes off the man in front of him. "Be careful with that guy over there, he's different from the others… and we should hurry – they already attacked the Kihimi-mansion."  
His team-mates nodded in apprehension, mindful not to show any distress about the latest news, so the Hatake carried on in a low but peremptory voice: "Sakura, you take care of those two over there; you shouldn't have problems in dealing with them…"

"Allright." Sakura accepted and focused her attention on her two opponents, while Kakashi continued instructing: "Sasuke, we'll both face the one over there, he's no ordinary opponent… so don't take him lightly."

The Jounin looked down on the dark marks on his wrist, but cocked his head to the side, as he heard the clan-heir snort in aversion.

"There won't be any need to." He stated in an unmoved tone and drew his Katana out of its sheath, while he moved towards his enemy with self-confident steps.

Kakashi sighed and watched his student with a frown on his face – if he wouldn't learn to hold his monumental ego at bay, it would cost him his head, but maybe he was right and he really didn't need his sensei's help… He would leave him his will for the time being, but decided to stay alert nevertheless – something bothered him about their opponent, he just couldn't tell what exactly it was yet.

…

…

Even though there were at least twenty people in the large throne-hall of the Kihimi mansion, it was so quiet that you could have heard a feather drop, everyone holding their breaths in anticipation for Yuudai's elucidations.

"So tell us about your mission." Sayuri demanded, after their captive had finally acquiesced in answering their questions, even though he took damn long to do so.

"There is no mission - I was sick of that bastard's self-complacent and inhumane behaviour." He replied brusquely and looked inconspicuously around, as if searching for an escape route.

"And…?" Naruto inquired, already fed up with having to worm all the answers out of their former guide.

"I someday realized that I couldn't take it any longer, that's why I planted bombs in his personal rooms to kill him." There was no trace of regret in his voice, he actually sounded rather proud of his actions.

"But then you failed…"

"Tze – that's all your fault… if you hadn't demanded to see him, he would have been in his room and had taken his after-lunch nap, same as everyday." He shot a scornful glance at them, but received a smack against the back of his head from Naruto.

"So that leads us back to the question, why you didn't blow up the entire mansion? – Were the Takume's too greedy to buy enough explosive charges?" Sayuri asked incredulously, while she observed how yet again a wry grin appeared on their captive's face.

"What's so funny?" Naruto let out a guttural growl and clenched his fists – it was really hard for him to hold himself back, but he somehow managed it – at least for the moment.

"You still don't get it, huh? I don't work for those damn Takumes! I'm my own boss and I did everything on my own free will" He snarled in a low voice, apparently annoyed of having to repeat himself over and over again.

"Damn, that guy!" Naruto exclaimed indignantly, he was still not sure whether he should believe their captive or not. "What do you think of him, Sayuri-chan?"

"Hmm…" With a frown on her face, Sayuri went through everything she had heard about the events that had occurred in the Land of Snow, lately, until she came across something, he had told them in the lighthouse.

"Do you remember what he told us about the Takumes pretending not to be involved in any of the violent things going on? So even if he was working for the Takumes, he wouldn't admit it… so I don't think he's a reliable source…"

Yuudai's eyes widened slightly, after her words, but he soon got a grip on his self again and just snorted dourly.

"Of course, that'd make sense!" The blonde exclaimed enthusiastically. "That would also explain, why he was so easy to catch – he hardly offered any resistance because he wanted to be captured!" Naruto looked again at the auburn-haired man, whose face was now completely blanched, except for a tiny red runlet, which ran down his chin, after he had bitten on his lips in tension.

"You're right… The Takumes couldn't have killed him directly and even if Jousuke had been killed through an incident, they as the Kihimis' rivals, would be the first to be suspected, accordingly it would be quite handy for them, if one of Jousuke's own men murdered him and was captured by doing so…" The violet-haired girl mused, shooting a piercing look at the completely rigid man in front of her, trying to read in his reaction whether they were right with their assumptions or not.

All other eyes were turned to Yuudai too, but he just stared obstinately to the floor, pretending not to be there at all.

"Guess we'll have to wait for our interrogation squad after all…" Naruto sighed, but turned around hastily, when he heard the shrill sound of shattering glass, coming from the other side of the large hall. He looked up at one of the broken, arch-shaped windows where he could make out a halfway hidden silhouette that vanished completely just a second later, until his attention was caught by some chocked, gurgling noise, he couldn't quite identify.

When he gazed back down he realized where the sound came from, as did the others apparently too, since some shocked shrieks went through the hall and people were backing away from the centre of their small crowd. Yuudai, who was in the middle of the turmoil, had fallen to the ground and moved his limbs spasmodically, trying to wrap his cramping fingers around his throat, while blood started running down his hands and came in thrusts out of his gaping mouth.

…

…

Sakura stared at her opponents, which stood like two grizzlies in front of their client, both of them at least twice her size, but nevertheless the pinkette didn't give in to any feelings of intimidation. Kakashi-sensei had assured her that she was able to handle those guys and she was unwilling to loose the trust he was putting in her abilities. She'd first have to find a way to defeat those two bodyguards and then she would have to make sure that the Takume wouldn't escape – so much to the theoretic part, now she would have to put her plan into action.

She inhaled deeply and then crouched down a little, taking on her typical fighting stance, before she gripped into her small beige side pouch to take out some Shuriken, which she then threw at her opponents. However the smaller, but still quite tall man, Tessai, if she got it right - the one that had already been wounded by Kakashi, just held up his sword and fended them off with its broad blade, before he cringed slightly and led his hand to his chest to cover his wound, while a stifled moan escaped his lips.

"Oh back off you wimp!" Rensuke pushed him roughly to the side, what earned him a deadly glare from his comrade, however he didn't offer any resistance and just placed himself right in front of Nobunaga, blocking Sakura's view of him completely.

Meanwhile, the pinkette's direct opponent had pulled out a scroll from under his cloak and summoned a chain sickle, which he then held up with a self-assured sneer on his face.

"Let's play!" He grinned, swinging the chain like a lasso and throwing one of his sickles at her, but Sakura was able to dodge it by bowing down and then leaping forwards, so that just a few metres separated her from her opponent now.

His weapons indicated that he was a long or middle range fighter, but since she was best in close range fights, she was in the better position right now. Before Rensuke was able to pull back his weapon, Sakura had already dashed forwards, while concentrating chakra into her clenched fist, which she then slammed with all her strength at her opponent. However that one crouched down just in time, so that her punch didn't hit her enemy, but the wall behind him, which then slowly started to crumble, due to the force of her blow.

Realizing that he had just escaped his certain death, Rensuke stood open-mouthed and slightly dumbfounded by the inhuman strength his opponent had just displayed in front of the pink-haired Kunoichi and realized that this was his chance to attack.

She was still standing close before him, just about to pull her hand out of the remains of the collapsing wall, consequently neglecting her defence, so he used the time to slash the sickle at the other end of the long chain, he was still holding in his hand at her stomach, but since she realized what he was about to do, she leaped backwards in time, although she couldn't avoid being streaked by its blade. The second her hand was drawn out of the bricks, most parts of the wall crumbled down completely, so there was now a huge hole in it, looking straight over the huge garden spreading from the Takume-mansion to the dark wood, they had passed through on their way to this place.

She pressed her mouth shut tightly and sucked a sharp breath through her clenched teeth, trying to keep a gasp from escaping her lips, while she directed an angry glare at her opponent, who had just picked up his weapon again and threw both the sickles at her this time. They flew in a wide berth around the Kunoichi, almost seeming to miss her, however as they had just dashed past her, he gripped for the long chain that was connecting them to direct his weapons towards his target, in a quick movement.

'What a lame attack' Sakura thought as she gripped for the two sickles that came flying at her and caught them at once. However as soon as her fingers had tightened around them, her opponent pulled forcefully at the metal chain he was still holding in his hands and therefore caused the pinkette to loose her balance and stumble towards him, while he drew a Kunai he was planning to thrust at the Kunoichi as soon as she was in reach, but he hadn't reckoned that the pinkette would be able to adapt to this situation fast enough to do something about it. How wrong he'd been. As she was almost in reach of his dagger, she restored her balance and used the moment of surprise to kick into her opponent's face, who then crashed with his spine against the protruding bricks of the broken wall, the hard impact forcing all air to leak out of his lungs.

Sakura took a deep breath and erected herself, before she turned around and looked with a firm expression at her remaining opponent and his client, who was now timidly hiding behind the tall man's back.

The already wounded Tessai let his eyes wander nervously through the entire room, before he hurriedly gripped into his back pocket and drew a gas bomb, he then threw in front of Sakura's feet, the dark, soaring smoke blocking her view and making her blind.

…

…

While the Haruno was busy with fighting the small fry, Sasuke had already begun to compete with his own opponent, realizing soon that the man in the black leather jacket was easily able to fend off his every attack and could even keep up with his own speed, but even so the Uchiha doubted that he was an even match for him – he was probably the best opponent he had faced in quite a while, but that was about it…

After having exchanged some fruitless attacks with their katanas, Sasuke's blank black eyes met the equally bored and black ones of his enemy – it was obvious that both men didn't think too highly of their opponent.

Walking a small circle around each other, like two bellicose lions, both combatants dashed towards each other, but once again, the clanking sound of metal clashing against metal, confirmed that they had failed to wound each other for another time.

Kakashi observed through watchful eyes, how the two men attacked each other over and over again and couldn't help but to be amazed by the incredible speed they were displaying. It would have been hard to follow their movements with the naked eye, so he was glad about having his Sharingan that didn't let him miss even the tiniest action of this breathtaking fight. He didn't really like to admit it, but his help was really redundant here, the next generation had taken over – he was left to get dusty on the shelf, but maybe that was a good thing…

After some further fruitless attacks, Sasuke was slowly starting to get bored by merely playing around with his opponent, so he finally activated his Doujutsu and looked at his opponent through deep red eyes that enabled him to figure out and even copy every single movement or jutsu he saw.

From that point on, the ninja, hired by the Takumes' didn't stand a chance of competing against Sasuke in a Taijutsu-fight – given that the Uchiha was now able to foresee his every attack and the former sound of clashing metal was now replaced by the sound of tearing skin.

While the man in the leather-jacket was already quite breathless, the raven-haired man didn't seem to be in the least exhausted – this called for a change of plans…

Not lifting his eyes off his opponent, the ninja, hired by the Takumes' put away his katana and pulled something else out of the inside pockets of his jacket, before he leaped backwards and started to form a couple of hand-signs as fast as he could, while at the same time a gas bomb exploded and filled the whole room with a thick, opaque smoke.

The Uchiha watched his enemy's actions, with a blank expression, until his view was suddenly clouded, by the emerging smoke screen and he wasn't able to read the seals his opponent had just formed any longer.

Slightly uneasy, he perceived a brazen sound and jumped away from his opponent himself, when he noticed some small objects, tearing through his clothes and grazing his skin. At the moment they had just streaked him superficially, however they were becoming more accurate and he had a hard time dodging them, since he could only rely on his instincts, given that he wasn't able to see them. So he let his finger run over one of the small cuts the sharp needles or what ever it was had caused and formed the required seals for the attack he was about to perform, murmuring:

"Kuchiyose no jutsu"

A huge snake of at least eight metres' length appeared, coiling around him and shielding the Uchiha from his opponent's attacks, while the smoke slowly faded and clarified the sight again.

Stepping away from his living shield as soon as he was sure that he was no longer under attack, Sasuke looked at the spot his opponent had been standing on just a few seconds ago, realizing that he was gone. The dark-haired man turned around in search of his enemy, while the serpent disappeared again, but he was nowhere to be found – in fact he noticed that he was the only one left in the room right now; there was neither a sign of his enemies nor of his team.

…

…

"Shit!" Sayuri exclaimed in a shocked voice and knelt down next to their captive, who was still shaken by the constant spasms that ran through his entire body, while it had the seeming that he was chocking on his own blood.

"What the hell happened?!" Naruto shrieked in irritation, while he drew a Kunai and kept a close watch on the window, he was sure he had seen someone stand in before.

"There's a Shuriken in his throat" The violet-haired girl informed him, while she tried to keep Yuudai's arms away from the weapon he was desperately trying to pull out. "You over there – come and hold him still." She directed at a sturdily-built man standing right next to her, however that one didn't seem too keen on the task he's been assigned to.

"Why me?!" He pointed at himself and looked at the people surrounding him, who then took a step backwards, clearly showing that they didn't want to be concerned with the dying traitor, either.

"Just do it already!" She bellowed, starting to get desperate since she didn't know how to begin treating him, especially since her patient wasn't exactly making it easy for her…

"Hmph…" He finally condescended to aiding his former colleague, all the time pulling a wry face, but at least shutting up and doing his task properly.

As soon as Yuudai was immobilized, Sayuri canted his head, to make sure that the blood could flow out unhindered and so that he wouldn't swallow his own tongue, before she started to remove the Shuriken from his throat, hoping that it hadn't done too much damage to his trachea.

While the Kunoichi was busy with her patient, Naruto and all the other people in the room were shifting their eyes restlessly from one corner of the room to the other, cringing every time even the slightest sound, such as that of dripping rubble was heard, but they couldn't detect a sign of any intruders.

"Were the hell did that thing come from anyway?" One of Jousuke's employees enquired in a shaky voice, afraid that the next sudden attack would be aimed at him. No one knew an answer to his question, but carried on roaming about like some flushed chicken, until Naruto, who was in the centre of the crowd, summoned a lot of his Shadow clones, which he then sent out to search through the entire mansion.

"Can you send some to Jousuke as well? Just to make sure they are all okay…" Sayuri asked him, sounding all churned up, since she was concentrating hardly on healing Yuudai's indeed rather grave, but at least no longer life-threatening injuries.

"Sure!" A couple of his clones replied and dashed ahead – luckily it were so many, that an enemy would have a hard time to make out the ones going to Jousuke among the others.

After Naruto's bunshins had left, a tense silence fell over the room, everyone waiting eagerly to hear news from them, before the violet-haired girl stated, while she dabbed a slight film of perspiration from her forehead: "I've stabilized him for now… he should be out of the woods, I guess…"

"That's good." Naruto shot her an appreciating glance and earned an exhausted smile in response. "You should rest a little – I'll take care of things here." He grinned in utter conviction, as he all of a sudden heard a voice being raised to his left and turned around immediately.

"Well, well, you shouldn't have done that…" A man, wearing a thick grey coat, with a hood, he had pulled deeply into his face, had practically appeared out of nowhere in a corner of the room and walked leisurely to the throne to seat himself in it.

"Really – it would have done you much better to have stayed out of this…" This time the voice came from the front of the hall, from an equally mantled man, who stood rigidly like a sculpture in the huge door-frame.

At the sight of those two men, Naruto went at once into a fighting stance, as did his team-mate, but he called her back again: "I told you I'd take care of things here – you stay back." He looked with a reassuring countenance at the girl standing right beside him. After returning his gaze with an insecure glimmer in her eyes, she stepped back hesitantly and turned her attention to the wounded person again.

'Good' he thought, taking a deep breath in, before he turned to his two enemies again and concentrated on everything that might give him a hint of how to deal with them.

"You take care of us, huh?" The one sitting on the throne snarled, sounding rather amused, before the other one carried on in an equally larksome tone: "Pretty cocky, aren't you? Let's see if there is more to you than meets the eye."

After he had finished talking, he started doing some handsigns, however in that very second, one of Naruto's shadow clones appeared behind him and dashed his Rasengan at the Yuki-nin in the doorway, ramming his hand right through the man's chest.

"Who's cocky now, huh?!" He boasted mockingly, but fell silent as he noticed, how the area around the hole in his enemy's torso, turned to ice, before his whole body shattered into countless tiny ice-crystals, which floated through the air and covered the floor underneath the portal with a glittering-layer of ice.

"What the-?" Naruto stammered in bewilderment and shook his head as he was tickled by one of the tiny snow crystals that had landed on the tip of his nose.

"I knew it…" One of them said, but he didn't really know which one, since they were now both standing in front of the throne, looking exactly alike with their thick cloaks that didn't reveal anything of what was underneath them. "Let's stop playing around now, or we'll run out of time."

"Right." The other one agreed and they both leaped backwards, completely synchronous and landed in opposite sides of the room, but still on the same level as the small plateau, the throne was on, where they started to form a couple of seals in a rapid speed and murmured in unison:

"Kisa Hyôshô."

Naruto had already braced himself for the oncoming attack, but nothing happened. The two Yuki-nins just stood phlegmatically at both sides of the room, not even lifting a finger, while the blonde still looked insecurely from one side of the room to the other, trying to make out what they had just done, when the earth suddenly started shaking.

"Everyone, get away!" Sayuri exclaimed, gripping under the arms of the injured man and jumping to the side herself, as the floor of the hall, suddenly started to crack open and some spiky icicles started to pop up, right underneath Naruto's feet, since he hadn't bothered to leap out of the way as instructed, though now, that the icicles had started to spring up, he jumped into the air and started to dodge them, using his shadow clones to manoeuvre in the air. However not everyone had been this successful in avoiding the pointy objects; some of the people in the room had been hit by the icicles, even though it didn't seem as if anyone had suffered any serious injuries, while others were confined between some of the ice-peaks and were therefore immobilized.

…

…


	36. Change of heart?

**36.**** Change of heart?**

As the smoke began to fill the room, Sakura clutched her hands in front of her nose and narrowed her eyes instinctively, trying to make out anything in the thick, grey fume, but failing entirely. However now that she was deprived of her sense of sight and her sense of smell, Sakura's hearing ability increased noticeably and therefore she had no problems in making out the sound of her enemies' departure, so she took up the chase at once, groping her way towards the hole, she had punched into the wall earlier on.

As soon as she was outdoors, her vision cleared up again and she could see her opponent, who had flung his client over one of his broad shoulders and carried him away from his own mansion, so she hurried to catch up to them – unwilling to let them, escape that easily.

Since his injury and the extra-ballast slowed the ninja down considerably, the pinkette got ahead of them without any problems and cut off their way, by banging her chakra-filled fist into the ground. Her blow had been forceful enough to crack the earth open at once and some huge boulder rose into the air, obstructing the path away from the mansion.

"Damn…" Tessai cursed, looking desperately for an escape route, however in that second, the grey-haired Jounin landed behind him as well, hence he was cornered. With a self-assured look on her face, Sakura jumped over the clumps of dirt towards her opponent, who was biding into his lower lip, while he tried to find a way to get out of this precarious situation. He didn't need to ponder long though, since the appearance of his team-mate, brought his arrogant sneer back on his face, while his opponent on the other hand looked a little appalled now.

"Where's Sasuke?" The pink-haired Kunoichi demanded to know from the newcomer, however that one just glowered at her, before he turned towards the Hatake again and suddenly ran with raised katana into his direction. Once again the Konoha-nin was slightly caught off guard by his enemy's speed, who had almost reached him before he could even grab for a kunai, however a second before the man's katana would have hit him, Sasuke appeared right in front of him and blocked the attack.

"We're not done yet." The raven-haired man, murmured in a low, but clearly audible voice, directing a menacing glare through his crimson-red eyes at the man in front of him. That one gritted his teeth, clearly furious, before he leaped backwards and landed about five metres in front of the two Konoha-nins, where he started to form a couple of hand-signs.

Once again numerous tiny needles, whose movements the enemy-ninja was apparently controlling with his chakra, shot towards the two shinobi, who seemed to be in quite a plight right now, since those objects were on one hand too many to dodge them, but also too numerous to fend them off just like that, but Kakashi had the saving idea. He performed a jutsu, which let a huge rock face rise from the ground, which served as a shield for the two ninjas behind it, however instead of thanking his Sensei for the help, the Uchiha merely growled: "This is my fight – stay out of this."

Dropping his shoulders with a sigh, the Hatake agreed, even though he really disliked doing so, but his student's intonation had spoken for itself, so he would let him have his way, once again.

Jumping on top of the rocks Kakashi had created, Sasuke gazed down at his opponent, with an air of superiority surrounding his appearance. As Sakura looked up at him, she couldn't help but to be reminded of the day, they had finally been able to find him in one of Orochimaru's hideouts. He looked the very same way he had, a short time before he had tried to kill them and once again his appearance didn't fail to intimidate her, even though he was currently on her side - she sure wouldn't like to be in the Yuki-nin's shoes right now. That one however didn't seem to be as impressed by his enemy as she was, he still stood like a watchman in front of his colleague and their client, completely rigid, apparently waiting for the Uchiha to make the first move and the clan-heir didn't waste anymore time.

Drawing his katana, he jumped in a for his standards rather slow pace towards the man in the leather jacket, who already prepared to fend off his opponent's sword with his own one, but before the Uchiha had reached him, he let his chakra run through his Kusanagi and used his Chidori to extend its blade, which then hit the Yuki-nin, who couldn't get out of the way in time, in his rips, causing him to fall to the ground, while uttering some choked curses.

Still not pulling his katana out of his enemies wound, Sasuke stepped towards him, while the bluish-shining chakra-blade grew smaller the nearer he came. He looked down at the Yuki-nin with an unreadable face – however in that situation there couldn't have been an expression that would have appeared more mocking than this one. With a face contorted with pain and anger, the man in the leather-jacket looked up at his enemy, blood and saliva running down his chin as he stumbled some unintelligible curses, while trying to tug the katana out of his body.

"Y-you…" He stumbled weakly, his senses starting to fade as more and more blood started to pour out of his wound, but the Uchiha-heir remained merciless, He just carried on staring at his dying opponent, unaware of Sakura's shocked expression, until he eventually drew his sword out of his enemy's rips and was just about to thrust it into his heart, to finish him off completely, when he heard an enraged yell and realized as he looked up, how the other Takume-ninja rushed towards him.

Completely forgetting about his own injuries, Tessai ran with a frightening expression, just like a blood-thirsty beast, towards the raven-haired boy, displaying an astonishing agility for a man of his rather plump stature, but before he could reach the Uchiha, who had remained motionless the entire time, he felt something grip his shoulder and he was suddenly unable to move any further. As he turned his head around, he looked into the intent face of the pink-haired Kunoichi he had been fighting with earlier on, but before he could do so much as to react to her sudden assault, she added to the pressure on his shoulder and spun him around completely, before she concentrated chakra into her fist and slammed it right into her opponent's stomach.

The force of the impact, knocked all air out of the hired-ninja, who fell to his knees, as Sakura pulled her fist back and his eyes rolled to the inside of his head before he completely lost his consciousness and fell to the ground right in front of her feet.

"Well done. " Kakashi praised his students in a casual, non-surprised voice, while he let his eyes wander from one of the ninjas to the other. As he was sure that they wouldn't cause them anymore trouble, he walked leisurely towards Nobunaga, who was trying to climb over the boulders, which had been caused by Sakura's punch from earlier, in the vain attempt to flee from the three Konoha-nins. However since he was no spring chicken anymore and quite sturdily built as well, Kakashi caught up to him in no time and planted himself in front of the Takume-leader.

"You're coming with us now." He said in a peremptory voice to the wide-eyed man to his feet, who still struggled to get away from the Jounin, however that one just lifted him up by his collar, as if he'd weight nothing - what he sure did - and dragged him back down to his students.

"I guess we're done here." Kakashi stated, shaking his captive a little to make him stop whimpering. "We should go and check on the others – all that talk about explosions has got me worried a little."

Sasuke and Sakura nodded in agreement and while letting her eyes wander over the battlefield again, the pinkette asked: "What about him?" She nodded towards her opponent, who was still lying unconscious on the ground, a couple of metres away from them.

"Tie him up and leave him here – we'll see to him later" Kakashi decided with a frown on his face; he had a few scruples about leaving him behind, but since they had the Takume now, he was of hardly any value to them… Besides, the situation with the rest of his team seemed a little more important to him, so he led the way back to the Kihimi mansion, they had left just a couple of hours before.

…

…

"Damn!" Naruto screeched as he dodged a huge icicle that had literally appeared out of the blue and was therefore hit by another one, whose spike cut his calf and unbalanced him, almost causing him to get hit by some other ones, but his Shadow clones, which were buzzing through the air like flies, had reacted in time and pulled him out of the way, giving him an idea while doing so. He used another Shadow clone to throw him even higher up, until he reached the roof, or rather what remained of it, where he then concentrated his chakra into his hands and feet and kept sticking to the ceiling like a spider, waiting for his enemies to give up on their attack. However as he still waited for them to do so, the blonde realized that even though he was more or less safe for now, the other people in the room weren't as lucky as he was… His enemies carried on creating one icicle after the other, so the room on the floor got scarcer each passing second and it was just a matter of time until someone got seriously hurt – he couldn't let that happen.

While he watched how more and more of the pointed ice-spears shot out of the cracked floor and the shrill sound of splintering ice, when the icicles hit one another and the desperate screams of the people trying to find a way out of this enchantingly sparkling but utterly deadly labyrinth, assailed his ears, Naruto broke a sweat since he couldn't think of a way to save them until he was hit by a sudden idea.

Once again he created plenty of his shadow clones, since all the other ones had dissolved by now, until they covered the entire ceiling. Then two of them always formed a team and started to create numerous Rasengan which they then used to smash the ice-peaks beneath them, while the remaining ones jumped into the shimmering maze and tried to save the confined people.

As Naruto commenced his spectacular rescue-operation, Sayuri, who was still dragging the wounded and barely conscious Yuudai with her, was trapped somewhere between the numerous icicles. Since she wasn't exactly the strongest person she had a hard time to move with the extra-weight her patient was putting on her and every time she seemed to have found an escape route, new ice-spears shot out of the ground and obstructed her way again and the worst thing about all that was that she knew she couldn't do anything about this, other than running away and that didn't seem too promising either… She was pretty much screwed.

After having strayed through the labyrinth for what felt like hours, even though it were more likely just a couple of seconds, it seemed as if the two cloaked men had stopped their attack, so Sayuri came to a stop, still not letting her guard down, until she eventually felt it safe to let their captive down for a while to stretch her arms, which had already started to hurt from his weight, when another icicle shot out of the ground all of a sudden, just at their feet. Sayuri leaped forwards to push Yuudai out of the way, who let out a tormented cough as he collided with the floor and in addition, the girl landed on top of him as well, taking care that even the last bit of oxygen was squeezed out of his lungs.

As he had finished coughing, he looked up to his rescuer, who seemed almost as exhausted as he himself was, until he croaked in a very hoarse and distorted voice: "Why'd you safe me?"

Panting heavily, Sayuri gazed down into his eyes, needing a second to recollect herself before she answered with a thin and breathless voice: "Can't let you die just yet… you might still be of use…"

Expecting something like that, the auburn-haired man closed his eyes, while he grinned deviously, unable to bite back a snappy reply, even though every word leaving his throat, made him feel like he'd regurgitate a bunch of tacks. "Tze – just admit that you fancy me."

'There he is again…' Sayuri thought rolling her eyes, but all she answered was: "Whatever" – and after these words she erected herself again and pulled the wounded man up as well, when the sudden noise of shattering ice that suddenly drowned out every other sound, made her look up and gape at the sight that was presented to her.

The whole air was filled with tiny, bluish-sparkling ice-crystals, which threw their light into all directions and gave the whole scene a dream-like quality. The glittering ice-flakes were fluttering down and covered each and every surface they came in contact with, until the whole throne hall was sparkling like a huge Christmas ball. As she still stood their open-mouthed, turning her head in slow, almost reverent circles in the glitter-rain, Sayuri soon caught sight of numerous Narutos who came flying out of a clear blue sky and shattered the icicles into pieces. One of them landed right next to her and eyed the girl and their captive with a worried expression, before he took Yuudai out of her arms and asked: "Are you okay?"

"Uh-huh" Sayuri nodded and looked to the side as another bunshin appeared right next to her and linked arms with her, earning a confused glance from his team-mate.

"I'm okay. Really." She stated, giving him an askant look, while the other clone and Yuudai had already vanished, but 'her' clone just shrugged: "So what? - Let's go."

He pulled her upwards and they both jumped over the now blunt leftovers of the icicles, until they came to a halt in one of the window frames that had suffered pretty badly from the explosions before.

"Gotta go!" Naruto saluted, before he jumped back down and joined the other clones that had started to carry the people that were still left in the ice-maze, outside into safety.

Meanwhile, the two men in the thick grey cloaks had stopped their attack and were now as well standing on two of the icicles, they had created themselves, while a bunch of Narutos were surrounding them – however they seemed relatively unimpressed by their great number, that's what their body language expressed at least, since their faces were entirely hidden by their hoods.

As if they were a single person, all Narutos started simultaneously throwing Shuriken at their opponents, however they were able to repel them by raising more icicles around them, which shielded them from all the attacks. Once again, Naruto used his Rasengan to break through the ice-peaks, but as soon as he had managed to burn a hole into them, an ice-tiger jumped at him and caused the shadow-clone he had hit to vanish before he launched at the next one.

By using Kunai and Shuriken, Naruto and his Shadow clones had soon managed to eliminate the tiger, however as soon as they had, a whole pack of new ones came running towards them, while the two enemy-shinobis just stood there and watched their tigers do their work.

While the ice-beasts dashed against every single person they could get at, neither them nor the two ninjas noticed, that the real Naruto was standing, hidden in the shadows of some ice-peaks in a far away corner of the room, staring at his enemies with an intent expression on his face, before he bid into his thumb and pressed it to the now ice-covered marble floor, murmuring:

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu"

Two huge toads: a yellow one with a somewhat inane expression and a dark orange one appeared right next to him and quacked in salutation.

"Hey Naruto – got some snacks?" Gamatatsu asked hopefully, completely disregarding the chaos around him, but his big brother rebuked him: "No snacks for you before you did something – so what's the matter Naruto?" Gamakichi asked as he eyed the fortress made of icicles looming right in front of them.

"I need your help Gamatatsu – you'll get your snacks when we're back in Konoha."

"What?! No snacks now?" The yellow toad sulked and just turned around, giving the blonde the cold shoulder.

"You'll get your snacks Gamatatsu-" His brother started, but Naruto cut in, trying to sound as persuasive as he could manage, since they were running out of time: "And a whole lot of them!"

He could see how the toad perked up his ears, but still didn't turn around, so Gamakichi, who had understood the gravity of the situation carried on: "And when you do well, you'll get a little pretaste once we get back…I promise"

"All right big bro" The yellow toad finally turned around and Naruto jumped onto its back at once, concentrating his wind-chakra into his arms.

"Mold your chakra in your stomach and breathe in through your nose." Gamakichi advised him, paying attention that his brother did everything properly. "Now hold it back and let everything out at once."  
Once Naruto felt the time was ready, he combined his wind manipulated chakra with Gamatatsu's water-chakra, by pressing his hands onto the toads back, while murmuring:

"Futon, Gamateppô."

The second he had finished talking, the yellow toad let out a huge yet of water that darted with an enormous pressure and velocity towards the wall of icicles their enemy's were hiding behind, destroying it, as well as the ice-tigers and Naruto's shadow clones the instant it came in contact with them.

"Well done!" Naruto cheered as he jumped off the toad's back and thanked them again.

"Yay, we did it! Let's go and get snacks big bro." Gamatatsu demanded, so after that they vanished and Naruto turned cautiously towards the spot their enemies had been standing at.

Everything that was left of the massive ice-peaks was some debris and a new layer of the glittering ice-crystals that were covering everything in the entire room, but he couldn't catch sight of his two opponents so he warily walked towards the ruins, searching through the rubble until he finally found them. They looked rather worn out; dirt and ice-splinters were covering almost every visible piece of their skin and their clothes were fairly battered, so Naruto was finally able to catch a glimpse of the men's faces and was pretty surprised to find them looking completely alike each other: they had the same bold and kind of square heads, no eyebrows and a pointed nose, their eyes were closed so he couldn't see their colours, but he was sure it would be identical. There was no doubt that they were twins – it would be way too unlikely to find two unrelated people, who looked equally revolting at the very same place… anyway they were out of it and that was all that mattered, the blonde thought and created some shadow clones to keep watch on them, before he, joined the others that were still waiting outside and were provisionally treated by Sayuri, who looked up as soon as she heard her team-mate approach.

"Naruto-kun are you okay?" She asked anxiously, as she looked at the slightly battered boy, but the smile that lit up his face made her relax again.

"Of course – everything went fine – they are done for…" He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned against a wall, pretending to be completely unaffected by the fight before, even though his exhausted face gave away his actual condition pretty well.

"That fast? – you're awesome" Sayuri was truly impressed by her team-mate, who had more or less handled things all by himself here, not needing her help at all.

"Ah, that was nothing – piece of cake…" The blonde proudly rubbed a finger under his nose, but was then hit by an abrupt wave of dizziness, so he leant back against the wall and slowly sank down to the ground, realizing that he was apparently way more exhausted than he had thought.

Alarmed by Naruto's unexpected collapse, Sayuri rose up from the ground and walked towards the blonde, anxiously laying a hand on the boy's forehead and running her healing Chakra through it, while Naruto let out a worn-out moan and looked quite miserable.

The violet-haired girl frowned slightly, unable to find the reason for Naruto's sudden breakdown, since he had, against expectation, still a lot of Chakra left, when a growling noise made things clear.

Stiffening up, Naruto tried to suppress the unmistakable sound his entirely empty stomach was emitting, with a mortified grimace on his face, but failed completely, while Sayuri just let out an embarrassed sigh, as she realized that she had been worried for nothing.

"Uhm…" Naruto muttered, scratching his head sheepishly, before he looked up, as he found the people around him laughing at him.

"Hey!" He voiced his indignation with a sulky face, but then joined their laughter in relief that everything was over now.

"You think it's safe to get Jousuke and Tomomi here now?" The violet-haired Kunoichi, who had joined in the laughter as well, asked after a while, bringing her team-mate down to earth while doing so.

"Of course! I'll tell my Bunshins to get them here!" He exclaimed with new energy, but cringed together again to grip for his stomach that felt as if it was shrivelling.

…

…

Half an hour later Tomomi, Jousuke and Hideki, framed by two of Naruto's shadow clones, arrived on the grounds of the huge Kihimi mansion. The clones looked rather stressed out and exhausted while Tomomi was clearly furious and Jousuke looked as if he'd just taken a good flogging. As soon as they were among the crowd, Naruto's Bunshins dissolved and Jousuke took the first chance he could get, to hide himself behind his subordinates, however that didn't do him any good, since they backed away the second Tomomi approached them and carried on striking at her husband like a vixen.

Hideki, who had apparently witnessed this spectacle for the best part of the last hour didn't bother any longer to help his Lord out of this precarious situation and just stood in a corner as grim as usually, until he lifted his head and announced that someone was approaching them.

Everyone raised their heads and turned into the direction Hideki was pointing to, clearly tense since they were afraid of having to face yet more enemies, now that they were still exhausted from the first encounters. Naruto and Sayuri rose up as well, already preparing themselves mentally for another fight, even though they knew they weren't ready for it, however as the small group of people came closer and their silhouettes became clearer, they soon realized who they were.

"Phew… it's them" Sayuri heaved a sigh of relieve, dropping to her knees again and resting her hands in her lap, while Naruto let himself fall back to the ground as well, keeping his upper body erect by supporting himself with his arms.

"That took some time!" Naruto flashed a broad and yet exhausted smile, as the rest of his team came in earshot.

"Oh!" Sakura exhaled as she came to a stop right in front of the blonde boy. "What happened to you? – You look so… glamorous…" The pinkette raised an eyebrow as she sized the Uzumaki up, clearly puzzled.

"Why, that's the look of victory!" Naruto concluded, not really knowing what she was driving at, but the Haruno corrected him.

"No, no, I mean like, you're sparkling…" Sakura pointed at him, before she looked around and realized that everyone was about looking the same way as the blonde did.

"What?!" Naruto shrieked and looked down at himself, noticing the tiny twinkling ice-crystals that still stuck to his clothes, since those were cold enough not to make them melt.

"How are things going here?" Kakashi asked them, bringing the conversation back to the mission, while he observed the ruins of the formerly splendid building, until his eyes travelled to their client who was still busy with getting beaten by his young wife.

"Everything's fine." Naruto answered, while he inconspicuously brushed the ice-crystals off his clothes: "Who's that?" The blonde pointed at the man, standing beside Sasuke. He wasn't bound or anything, but there still didn't seem to be any danger of him running away, since the Uchiha's deadly glare kept him in place.

"Is that Takume Nobunaga?" Sayuri asked astounded, receiving a nod from the grey-haired man.

"What?!" Jousuke had finally succeeded in bringing some distance between him and his wife and now approached them hastily as he heard the name of his rival.

"Haha haha!" The head of the Kihimi-clan laughed like a maniac, as he caught sight of his now captivated rival and started to perform some kind of victory dance in front of the elder man, who just turned his head to the side in disgust, trying to ignore the disgraceful and above all childish behaviour of the Kihimi.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura averted her gaze from the two men and turned to her Sensei: "Does that mean we're done now?"

Eight questioning eyes turned to the Hatake; however that one just sighed and shook his head: "Not yet, the main part of our mission is to quell the riots – we are not done before we've accomplished that."

"But how can we possible lay down riots, when they are based on personal aversions?" Sayuri enquired, clearly fatigued and Naruto added: "Right – and what about Tomomi?"

"Hmm…" The Hatake sighed looking around as he searched for a solution, but then just dropped his shoulders and answered: "I don't know yet – we should rest first and then take our time to think things over."

This suggestion earned consenting nods from his worn out students that had neither slept, nor eaten anything in the last 20 somewhat hours, just as him, too, so after taking care of the unpostponable matters, the five Konoha-nins retreated into their chambers and recovered from the past events.  
…

…

It was about as warm as it could possibly get in winter in Yuki-Gakure, which means not warm at all. The temperature was still far below zero, but at least the sky had cleared up a little and the low afternoon-sun throwing it's light over the crowded town-centre, at least gave the impression of a nice, sunny day and should have been able to lift the mood of the attendant people, however those were so enraged, that they apparently couldn't care less whether the sun was shining or it rained cats and dogs, all they wanted was to give vent to their anger – and they held a lot of anger.

Nervously peeking through the white silk-curtains, covering the balcony door of the house situated in the centre of the small town that was now surrounded by an upset mob, Jousuke couldn't help but to feel intimidated, so he asked, for about the tenth time in this hour: "Do I really have to do this?"

"You damn wimp – you brought yourself into this situation, now see how you get out of it again." Tomomi grouched in an intonation that didn't really seem to fit to her neat and dainty appearance, while she rose up from her boyfriend's lap, who was sitting in a cozy leather armchair in a corner of the small room.

"But is there no other way to do this?" The Kihimi turned pleadingly towards the Konoha-nins, who had split up to stand at the windows, which looked over the balcony and the wooden entrance door as well, before he started to wipe the perspiration from his forehead.

"No." Kakashi finally muttered, annoyed by his clients repeated questions. "You'll do just as we've discussed and everything will be fine." He assured him again, shaking his head as he observed how the Kihimi again gripped for the curtain, shaking like a leave, to look at his citizens, he had requested to come here for a talk, or rather he had been forced to invite… It was astounding, how a person could turn from a haughty, arrogant boaster into a whining, jittering picture of misery in practically no time…

A splashing sound was heard and Jousuke backed away from the window at once, leaning his back against the wall and closing his eyes while murmuring: "They are throwing tomatoes… they are throwing tomatoes at me… Where did they get those damn tomatoes from?"

He repeated this like a mantra, while his nervousness seemed to go sky high, but the Hatake brought him back to reality: "It's about time now." The grey-haired Jounin reminded his client, not showing any mercy for his momentary condition, but the Kihimi's eyes just widened and he started to stutter: "No… please… I can't do this… they'll kill me… they'll tomato me to death! Please don't make me…" He pleaded in a bleating voice; it was clearly visible that he was losing it, so Tomomi did what she thought was right: she slapped his face, more often than necessary and with obvious pleasure, but once she had started she just couldn't stop again.

"Tze you damn coward – how about you stand your ground and take responsibility for the things you did – and if they end up killing you that's exactly what you deserve!" She barked at him, still not stopping to flog him.

"St-stop it! Ouch – hey! I could need some help here!" Jousuke turned towards the shinobi he had hired to guard him, while he tried to shield his face from Tomomi's punches.

"Enough now, Tomomi…" Sakura turned half-heartedly to the young woman and gripped for her arms to hold her back.

"Tze… you know he deserved that…" She mumbled before she went back to Masao and gripped for his hand, the grimace on her face vanishing at once and a beaming smile took its place, as soon as she looked into her lover's eyes.

Watching this scene, Jousuke just rolled his eyes and observed with growing uneasiness how the five shinobi approached him and placed themselves around him, ready to guide him out to the balcony, but he didn't show the slightest inclination to move any time soon, so Naruto, who was more than just annoyed by the Kihimi's cowardly behaviour, gave him a not exactly gentle push, causing Jousuke almost to bump against the door, if Sayuri hadn't reacted in time and pushed it open, so instead of knocking against the door, what he'd have preferred, he just stumbled onto the balcony and crashed against the rusty iron balustrade, staring wide-eyed at his citizens that had fallen silent the second he had come into view.

"That's him – get him!" Some screams were uttered by the upset crowd and some more foul tomatoes came flying at the leader of the Kihimi-clan, who threw his arms over his head and crouched down, anticipating the rotten vegetables to hit him, but they didn't.

"Come up." Kakashi nudged his shoulder, causing the Kihimi to look up at him "You do your job and we'll take care they won't hit you." He assured his client, who observed how the blonde boy was just fending off a few tomatoes with a dagger, before he swallowed hard and rose to his feet again, trying to radiate as much self-assurance as possible, however he wasn't able to hide his anxiety, especially as he finally started to commence his speech in a shaky voice.

"Citizen of Yuki-Gakure" He started, but broke off again as the crowd started to boo him.

"Go ahead" Naruto prompted him, before he turned to the front again and shouted: "Shut up and listen to him!" However the crowd didn't seem to be too impressed by his request.

"The past month had been marked by many frictions that all go back to some deep misunderstandings on both your and my side." He carried on, but was again interrupted by some scornful laughter and further catcalls, rising from the people, but he tried not to let them get to him.

"I'm not trying to shift the blame on you – I know that I did things that aren't easy to be forgotten or to be excused – however all I'm trying to say is that both you and I have been manipulated by no one else than Takume Nobunaga."

Some disbelieving shrieks arose form the crowd, but they at least stopped throwing things at him and fell comparatively silent, apparently curious after all about what he had to say.

"Admittedly, my marriage to Tomomi gave the impetus to everything that happened, however I want you to know that I never married her, with the ulterior motive of publicly disgracing the Takume family. Everything that happened after that was controlled by Nobunaga: he hired foreign-ninjas and made them attack his own districts, to give the impression they were working for me, however I can assure you that I never lifted a hand or gave the order to physically harm anyone of my folk or their properties. However I cannot deny that the withdrawal of all your food-supplies was an idea that had its origin in me - it was a knee-jerk reaction to your sudden aversion towards me and the assassination attempt that had taken place shortly before that and upset me so much that I was tempted into giving these harsh orders and I can't tell you often enough how much I regret it and seek a reconciliation with you. I know it is hard for you to believe me after everything that happened, but I assure you that I told you nothing but the truth and I've invited someone, who is more in your confidence than I am to confirm everything to you"

After this statement, the balcony door swung open again and Masao walked onto the balcony, demonstratively placing himself beside Jousuke, while a hushed murmur went through the mass at the reappearance of the lost son of the Takume-family.

"It is true, my father – no…" He interrupted himself and shook his head, before the blonde man placed his arms on the rusty balustrade to support himself and carried on: "- the man who claims to be my father has been successful in fooling every one of us, using us to accomplish whatever he aimed for. He has kept me locked away all this time so I won't interfere in his plans, until those five ninjas here saved me, freed Tomomi and on top of that captured my father and defeated the ninjas he had hired. We all owe them a lot and this is our chance to start anew and even though I on my part haven't forgiven Jousuke for his actions yet, you should nevertheless listen to him and give him the chance to make up for what has happened – after all he is still the man you have elected to govern your country. Moreover, as of today I, as the new head of the Takume family announce, that the Takumes will withdraw from all political activity. That's everything." He concluded before he went back into the small room they had all stayed in before, where he joined Tomomi again, while the Konoha ninjas and the Kihimi let their eyes wander over the unsettled crowd that seemed to be entangled in numerous discussions, trying to digest what they'd just heard. Jousuke cast an uneasy look towards the grey-haired Jounin at his side, but that one just nodded encouragingly and caused the Kihimi to look ahead again, facing the still fickle and unconvinced crowd, before he started with his least favourite part of the speech they had prepared – the one containing the amends: "I know it will be hard for you to ever forgive me for what happened and yet I am here, asking you to try it at least. It's not a modest request, I am well aware of that, but I will do my best to rise in your estimation again and maybe if you won't let old grudges blind your view and restrict your mind, maybe one day you will be able to condone me."

He paused at that point and closed his eyes reverently before he carried on: "My first action will be to remove the trade barrier and customize the food supplies again. On top of that, everyone will receive approximately the amount of food he would have consumed in the time it was being withheld, for free. Furthermore I will bear all the costs to make up for the damage that had been caused by the attacks of the Takume's to your property and take care that they will be settled as soon as possible…" He recited these words almost mechanically, it was clear that he hadn't come up with them himself and now his mouth formed a thin line as he pressed his lips tight against each other, unwilling to let out the last part of his speech, but Sakura already purred in his ear: "And…?"

"And…" He repeated, his voice failing after that word, so he swallowed hard and carried on: "And I will release Tomomi from our marriage and arrange new elections in three months – so I have some time to prove myself to you, before you think things over…" He rattled off and looked into the faces of some of the people that were standing in front of him. To his surprise they didn't look angry any longer – not too avid either, but at least they seemed to be more or less agreeing to what he'd just said – he hadn't expected that.

He turned around again and looked at the ninjas he had hired, before he walked, again surrounded by them, back into the small room and let himself fall into the chair Masao, who had left by now, had been sitting in a couple of minutes ago.

"I can't believe that really worked - they seriously bought that!" Jousuke started laughing boastfully, his sweaty-hair now the only thing that reminded of his former churned up and panicky condition.

The five Konoha-nins sighed simultaneously and Naruto smacked his hand against his forehead in frustration before he muttered: "You know if you start breaking your promises again, the riots will just rise once more and no one is going to re-elect you the next time…"

"As if I wouldn't know that… but they'll sure elect me again, I mean did you see them? I had them wrapped around my finger the entire time… there was no need for me to come up with new elections and divorce… I shouldn't have listened to you!"

He grimaced as he got up again and walked towards the door: "Anyway, I'll just make some deductions to your fee for that and everything will be fine – now get me back home and I'll declare your mission as completed." He finished and walked haughtily out of the room, while the five shinobi just exchanged disbelieving glances and Naruto muttered: "Can I hit him, once we get what is left of our actual wages?"

"Our mission is over by then, so you no longer have to ask for my permission…" The Hatake muttered casually, before he followed after their soon-to-be ex-client.

"Yosh" The blonde jumped up enthusiastically and looked to the side as he heard Sayuri raise her voice: "You think it's ethically justifiable to unleash him on the citizens of Yuki-Gakure again?"

"Well… if they are anything alike the people we've met here thus far, they really deserve him!" Naruto grinned sheepishly and after that the two of them joined the rest of their team, who had already started to follow the Kihimi outside, eager to finally leave this unfriendly country, all it's inhabitants and especially the freezing temperatures behind.

…

…


	37. Peculiar visitor

**37. Peculiar visitor**

It was already late in the morning, when the five members of Team7 finally reached their hometown. It was hard to believe that they had been gone for no longer than two weeks and that their actual mission had merely taken them three days; they've spent the rest of the time with travelling and were glad to finally be back at a comparatively warm place, since the winters in the Land of Fire were always rather mild, completely unlike those in the Land of Snow.

After having passed through the huge maingate, leading into the Hidden Leave Village, the small group of shinobi came to a halt, as Kakashi addressed them: "You all did exceptionally well on this mission – I had some slight concerns considering your teamwork during this mission-" He inconspicuously let his eyes wander to the Uchiha, before he carried on in a pleased tone: "but you have convinced me of the contrary – I'm really proud of you."

He shot an almost paternal smile at them and stared into some beaming but also exhausted faces, so he added: "Allright – I'll go to Tsunade and tell her about the course of our mission, there's no need for you to come with me, just take your time to recover."

"Thanks Sensei!" Sakura replied on behalf of the rest of her team and watched how her team-leader vanished in a puff of smoke, before she turned to the rest of her squad: "Let's go then – I'm dead tired!"

"And hungry – I'll go straight to Ichiraku's! Who's with me?!" Naruto asked everyone around, however his enthusiastic pleadings just fell on deaf ears and while he still carried on begging and ranting, the rest of his team had already started walking into the direction of the Uchiha district.

"Ah come on – guys! Please?" He didn't stop his pleadings, until he suddenly caught sight of someone to his left and started hollering: "Hey! Neji! My ramen-friend! How about some soup?" He greeted the brown-haired Hyuga-heir excitedly, who started walking towards them, as soon as he noticed them.

"Your mission is over then?" Neji asked after he had welcomed the rest of Team7 as well, with a little exception though, since Sasuke hadn't bothered to stay there and have a talk with the Hyuga, but had walked obstinately ahead as if he hadn't seen him at all.

"Sure! That mission was way too easy, if it hadn't been that far away we would have been back ageeees ago…" Naruto boasted with a proud expression on his face, while Neji just closed his eyes and shook his head with a slight smirk on his face.

"Does that mean you really were successful?" He asked even though he already knew the answer, he just wanted to tease Naruto a little and received the very reaction he had anticipated to get.

"What?! - Of course we were! How can you doubt that?!" Naruto shrieked agitatedly and looked about with a confused expression, as sudden laughter started to break out all around him.

"Heh?" He looked at them like a little puppy, before he joined in the laughter, a little hesitant though, since he still didn't know what they were laughing about and they carried on walking again, all the time chatting with the Hyuga who had decided to accompany them a little, until Sayuri said: "Alright, I need to turn right here – still have to pick up Scootie from the Inuzukas. See you later then!"

"Wait, I need to go this way too. "Neji threw in and walked towards the girl that had stopped in her tracks after his statement. As he had caught up to her, he turned around and said goodbye to the others, before the two of them kept on walking off.

"Sooo, Sakura-chan…" Naruto turned to the pinkette with a weird expression on his face, the moment they were alone, earning an awkward and a little uneasy glance from her. "Now that we're all by ourselves, how about we go out and eat something… like… a date you know…" He said while he looked at his feet and twiddled his thumbs, waiting for an answer from his team-mate and that wasn't long in coming.

"Like hell I would go on a date with you!" The pinkette answered with a final edge to her voice, while she crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned away from the boy whose face dropped noticeably right after those damnatory words had escaped her lips.

"B-but Sakura-chan –" He pleaded again, but was cut off by the pink-haired Kunoichi once again: "No."

"But- "  
"No!"

This game carried on, until they finally arrived the Uchiha-mansion, where Sakura went right into the kitchen and picked up a box of instant-ramen, which she then threw at the Uzumaki, who had kept on following her, not accepting a '_no'_ for an answer.

"There you got your damn Ramen – now be quiet for once." She barked at him, while she messaged her sleeves, trying to fight an oncoming headache, before she added in a calmer voice: "We don't have any 'real' food left – I'll go to the supermarket and buy something…"

And after these words, she went out again, leaving behind a blissfully feasting Naruto and a somewhere lost Sasuke.

…

…

About an hour later, Sakura was home again, storing the groceries she had just purchased, in the kitchen, before she went to her room, she was now again sharing with Sayuri, who was already busy with unpacking her things and putting them away, while her huge black dog was watching her attentively from a corner of the room, wagging his tail happily every time she turned to him.

"Hey." Sakura greeted her once-again room-mate and started stroking the dog, before she asked with a sugary smile on her face: "So… what did Neji want, huh?"

Sayuri stopped short in her movement, surprised how the pinkette was able to hit the nail on the head that quickly, before she answered tentatively: "Well… he asked me about a certain thing…some gossip, you know…" Sayuri shot an ambiguous glance at her room-mate, whose face took on a guilty expression, as she realized what the girl was talking about. "Oh, and he asked me to help him find a birthday present for Hinata, that's about it."

She started resuming her former activity, unaware of the smile that once again started to flash over Sakura's face and got broader and broader each passing second, before the pinkette eventually asked in a played sceptical tone: "But Hinata's birthday is still more than two weeks away - how come he wants to buy a present already? Or when does he want to go shopping with you?"

"Well today… I told him I was pretty tired, since I just got back, but he still insisted on going today… maybe he's assigned to a mission soon and this is the only opportunity he has… Anyway, guess I gotta go now" Sayuri said as she had finished unpacking her things and pulled a warm, fuzzy coat over her clothes.

"You think…?" Sakura hinted secretively, earning an uncomprehending look from her room-mate and then added, laxly pointing a finger at her: "You sure you wanna wear this?"

"Why? What's wrong with my clothes?" Sayuri looked down at herself, not understanding what the pinkette meant, since she was wearing her usual clothes.

"Well, nothing… it's just – don't you think these clothes are a little inappropriate for a date. Maybe you should wear something a little more special or do something with your hair for a change – I mean you could pin it up or something…"

"It's not a date. I'm just giving him moral support for his shopping tour – that's it." She defended herself, blushing a little, but Sakura just rolled her eyes and said in a sarcastic voice: "Of course it's not; anyway you should at least wear your hair loose then." The pinkette walked towards the girl next to her and pulled the ribbon out of her hair. Ignoring the protesting look on her roommates face, she then ruffled her hair a little, until she was satisfied and purred equivocally: "Well then, have fun…" And with a smile on her face Sakura let herself collapse into her bed, deciding to take a little nap, while she observed the departure of her team-mate, who again shot an insecure look towards her, before she finally – not tying her hair up again, left the room and went on her 'not-date'.

…

…

It was about seven o'clock, when Sakura finally woke up from her 'little' nap. She hadn't expected to sleep that long, but as it seemed, she had been even more exhausted than she had thought – if that was even possible - and after she had finally been able to lie in a warm and comfortable bed again, she apparently just got carried away…

She slowly erected herself and started to stretch her arms over her head, taking a look out of the window and realizing that it had already gotten dark outside. Dropping her arms again, she led them to her stomach, which felt completely empty and was bawling for food, so she got up and started walking through the corridor and down the stairs, until she reached the kitchen.

She was busy with rummaging through some of the numerous cupboards in search for the ingredients for her future-meal, when she heard how the door flew open and Naruto entered the kitchen with a loud yawn, which he didn't bother to suppress – apparently he'd had the same idea as her and taken a nap as well.

"Ah, Sakura-chan – you're making dinner?" He addressed her with an expectant look on his face, before he let himself fall to the ground and take a seat at his usual place.

"Tze – who do you think I am? Your personal cook? Do it yourself you lazy bum!" She nagged, while she shot a murderous look at the blonde, causing him to jump to his feet at once and rush to her side.

"B-but Sakura-chan, you know that I can't cook…" He whined in an uneasy voice, shifting from one foot to the other – there was no one, other than Sakura and Tsunade who was able to intimidate him like this; every time they started grumbling, he turned into a shy little boy and there was nothing he could do about it… but then that was probably the one and only way to behave when they were like this – at least if you valued your life that is…

His statement caused the pinkette to roll her eyes and heave a weary sigh: "Then help me at least – geez… I still don't understand how you managed to live on your own for the last couple of years …"  
"Thanks Sakura-chan! So what should I do?" He enquired, clearly relieved that he didn't have to do things all by himself.

"How about you start cutting the vegetables, I'll take care of the noodles and the sauce…" Sakura instructed him, turning around to pick up a pot, when the stressed expression of her team-mate caught her attention.

"What?" She asked him a little impatiently, but the blonde just scratched his head and answered sheepishly: "You mean that greenstuff, right? How am I supposed to cut it? Do you want… cubes or slices or maybe little stars? – no twirls!"

"Oh you know what? I'll do that and you'll prepare the noodles, okay?" Sakura proposed, since she feared ending up doing everything by herself after all, in case the blonde wouldn't manage his task.

"Fine." He answered and so they both started preparing the food, when the last male member of their household also entered through the kitchen-door.

"What's for dinner?" The Uchiha asked, sceptically eyeing his two team-mates that were fumbling around in the kitchen.

With an indignant expression on his face, Naruto who was wearing a white frilly apron, with a couple of stains on it, turned around and crossed his arms in front of his chest, edgily pounding the cooking spoon he was holding in one hand against his other arm.

"If you want to eat something, you have to do something – we are not your servants! Right, Sakura-chan?" He nodded towards the pink-haired girl before he turned back to the pot with boiling water in front of him and started stirring it.

"Ah, don't mind him Sasuke-kun, we're almost done here – just take a seat." Sakura assured him with an abashed smile on her face, but Naruto didn't want to put up with that injustice.

"No way! I have to do all the work here and he gets rewarded for that?!" He shrieked enraged, pointing the cooking spoon at the raven-haired boy, almost hitting him with some noodles, which had clung to it.

"You did all the work?" Sakura asked him in a dangerously calm voice, while an artery started throbbing on her forehead. "All you did was keeping watch over the noodles and you even managed to let those scorch."  
"Ah - they are not scorched… they are just… uhm… a little crispy… that's all." He defended himself and the results of his cooking skills, while he cast a sheepish look into the pot in front of him.

"Well I never heard of crispy noodles yet – did you?" The pinkette asked cynically, staring Naruto down, so he just shook his head in affirmation, with a constrained smile on his face, before he turned to his room-mate again and said: "At least set the table you slacker."

"Hn." The Uchiha, who had watched the two squabblers in silence all the time, finally muttered and really did as he was told, much to the surprise of Naruto, who had thought he'd have to come up with much more persuasiveness, so instead he just turned back to his noodles and started scraping them from the bottom of the pot.

As they were all done, they took their seats at the table and commenced their meal that didn't receive any compliments as it usually did…

Each time Sakura bit on one of the scorched and in fact crispy noodles, she regretted having assigned such an important task to the knucklehead ninja… But it were not only the noodles he had spoiled, he had messed around with the sauce as well, with the intention of turning it into a soup and now it was as thin as water gruel, if it wasn't for the weird lumps in it, she had no idea how he had managed to get done. Well at least the vegetables distracted a bit from all that…

About 30 minutes later, as they were still engaged in their meal, since it took them quite some time and above all overcoming to swallow down the inedible food, which would have been impossible if the hunger wouldn't help it down, Sayuri finally arrived home and joined her team-mates in the kitchen, which was slowly beginning to get crowded. With rising sympathy, she observed how they struggled to finish their food that even looked uneatable from a distance, since the burnt noodles were also turning the sauce dark, so everything had quite a weird colour and not to forget smell.

"So how did it go?" Sakura finally took a break and noticed in horror that she wasn't even halfway through her meal yet.

Leaning against one of the kitchen counters and still eyeing the plates with a disgusted look on her face, Sayuri answered: "Oh, it went fine; we found a really nice present for her, even though it was pretty hard… I've never met such an indecisive person before… and then he never came up with any ideas by himself so it took quite some time, but we found a nice bracelet, I hope she likes it…"

"Who?" Naruto enquired, while pieces of his half chewed food dropped out of his still full mouth.

"Ugh…" Sakura grimaced as she watched how the blonde clutched a hand in front of his mouth to keep further food from falling out, while he still looked at Sayuri, waiting for an answer.

Wrinkling her nose, Sayuri finally detached her eyes from the unpleasant sight and focussed them on his headband instead. "For Hinata of course – you didn't forget about her birthday, did you?"

"Wha- of course not! I'd never… … When exactly was it again?" He asked, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, while Sakura let out an irritated sigh: "December 27th, baka. Can't you keep anything in mind?"

"Ah c'mon, I knew that - I just wanted to test you… anyway are you hungry Sayuri-chan? We still have plenty of food left…" He looked at the food, trying to make it palatable to his team-mate, however he wasn't really convincing, since his glance was rather wary, it seemed as if he was afraid that the food would jump into his face, if he stared at it for too long.

"Yeah… I see that… but no thanks, I've already eaten…" Sayuri replied, sighing with relief that she wasn't in the position to sit at that table, so desperate from hunger that she'd actually eat that stuff.

"Really, have you… so it was a date after all, huh?" Sakura grinned with a knowing expression on her face and now the eyes of the boys turned towards Sayuri too, making her feel fairly uncomfortable and she felt the need to defend herself: "We just went eating because we were both hungry – that doesn't mean we had a date…"

"With whom?" Naruto asked, looking from one girl to the other with a curious expression on his face.

"Neji." Sakura replied, not noticing how the Uchiha's deep black eyes hardened at the mentioning of that name, however Sayuri did and it made her turn her head away from him at once, trying to hide another blush that arose on her cheeks, before Sakura turned back to her again, with a somewhat scary look on her face: "No date, huh? Let's see: Restaurant or snackbar?"

"Restaurant." The violet-haired girl answered brusquely, glad that short answers were possible, because otherwise she would probably get tangled up in her own sentences.

The pink-haired Kunoichi nodded, still with a weird grin on her face, before she carried on with her cross-examination.

"Cheap or expensive?"

"Uhm… I don't know, didn't look cheap…"

"Aha, did he pay?"

"Yes."

"WHAT?!" This time it was Naruto to pose a question and he did it in a volume that was impossible not to hear. "I can't believe it – that damn hypocrite! How many times have I asked him to come to Ichiraku's with me today and then he just goes into a restaurant with you?! And he has never EVER paid a single meal for me! What's with that?!" Naruto railed, sounding genuinely upset, while his team just eyed him a little dumbfounded and Sakura asked, still shaking her head in disbelief: "You're not serious are you?"  
"I sure am! I just don't get it - what's the matter with that guy!"

"Well, maybe it's because he is straight…" Sayuri speculated with a raised eyebrow, hardly able to suppress a grin. You could literally hear the crickets chirp in the subsequent silence, until things were eventually dawning on Naruto and he started to stammer uneasily: "oh… OH! err… I see. Hmm, You might have a point there…So you and Neji, huh?"

"No! Of course not that's –" Sayuri started, but stopped in mid-sentence, as a small bird came fluttering through the window they had opened to let out the cooking fumes and especially the smell of the scorched food, and landed right on the kitchen counter, casting a perplexed look through the room it was in now.

All eyes were now focused on the little thing, as if expecting it to explain its sudden appearance, however the tiny bird just twittered happily, before it took wing and fluttered in large circles through the air, right above the kitchen table, only to land moments later in the luckily already cooled down cup of tea of the Uchiha.

"What's wrong with that bird?" Naruto asked, leaning his head straight over the cup and staring sceptically at the queer creature.

"Seriously, it's really uncommon for a bird to behave like that…" Sakura pondered aloud, furrowing her brow.

"Hn." The Uchiha merely grunted, attentively regarding the small bird that was now beginning to flap its wings, still inside of the cup and with that sprinkled its contents all over the table, while it had its head directed straight at the clan-heir and stared at him with an almost creepy intensity.

"Bad place for a bird bath, really - if you don't watch out you'll end up as a meat insert" Sayuri muttered to the bird, side-glancing at Naruto, while she carefully picked it out of the cup and closed her hands around it, to keep it from flying off again.

"What are you gonna do with it?" Naruto asked while he walked towards the violet-haired girl and bent down slightly, so that he could catch a closer glance of the little intruder.

"Don't know, we can't let it out just yet, wet as it is, it would freeze to death…" She mused and stroked her thumb over the birds head.

"How about we keep it as a pet?" The blonde asked, while he started to fiddle with his fingers in front of the bird's head that peeked out between Sayuri's folded hands.

"Hmph." The Uchiha grunted disapprovingly while he rose to his feet and walked out of the room without uttering another word.

Completely ignoring the actual owner of the house, Naruto already started thinking of names for the little bird and planned on constructing a bird house all by himself, when the bird suddenly started fluttering wildly in Sayuri's hands, trying to poke its way out of her grip with its head.

"Huh? What's gotten into it all of a sudden?" The blue-eyed girl asked sceptically and slowly opened her hands, watching the bird take flight at once and head straight towards the window it had come in through as well.

"Hey birdie – wait!" Naruto hollered and ran after his little friend, trying to catch it again, but before he could reach it, it had already flown outside into the darkness again and was nowhere to be found.

"You think it'll be okay?" He asked as soon as he entered the kitchen again, after having given up on his search.

"Guess so – it's used to living outdoors, it should be fine." Sakura assured him, while she put away her plate

"Hmm…" Naruto pondered, looking a little downcast, while he walked in an unusual taciturn manner out of the kitchen.

"You think _he'll _be okay?" Sayuri asked, sounding a little worried, after the blonde had vanished out of her visual field.

"Hmm… why not…?" Sakura mused, while she passed Sayuri the dirty dishes, which she then started to wash.

"He looks a little lonely though… maybe we really should buy him a pet…" The violet-haired girl proposed and was surprised to find the girl next to her stare into space with a pensive expression on her face, since she hadn't really been serious about that thing…

"Or we should just give him a leg up…" The pinkette ruminated, while a sly smile started to appear on her face. "Just imagine – him and Hinata and you and Neji – it would be perfect!" – aside from these, she also had another pairing in mind, but she didn't voice that one, since she didn't want to tempt fate…

"Could you stop hooking everyone up already? Seriously…" Sayuri sighed in frustration, but the look on her room-mates face made clear that she was nowhere near giving up on that topic yet, so the two girls remained in the kitchen for quite some time, more or less enthusiastically chatting about future-pairings and so on, when the blonde ninja came back into the kitchen again and let his eyes wander through the entire room, before he asked: "Have you seen Sasuke by any chance? I wanted to ask him something… um, something important, but I just can't find him…"

"Don't know… He shouldn't be gone this late, he's still under arrest, are you sure he's not here?" Sakura asked him in a slightly concerned voice.

"Of course – I've been running through the entire mansion for the last half an hour, but he's gone…"  
"Hmm… maybe he took a walk or something – it's not that late yet… but if he shouldn't return by eleven o'clock we should go and search for him – I mean it's our mission after all, right?" Sakura asked, while a nervous laugh escaped her lips.

"Right… I'm sure he'll be back soon…" Sayuri assured her, however she had a queasy feeling about all this, especially since some certain memories started to come back again. She had almost forgotten about them by now… It seemed as if it had been ages ago that she had shared a room with him and woken up that one night, only to find his bed vacant. She had meant to keep a closer watch on him after that, but nothing suspicious had happened; except for some more recent events that had occupied and unsettled her mind even more… Anyway, if he had been gone at all that night, he had come back after that again, that's why she had never told anyone about it, but if he wasn't to return anytime soon, she would have to tell them about it, whether she liked it or not …

She just hoped for his sake that it wouldn't come to this…

…

…

Followed by a dark figure that moved as soundless and inconspicuous as a cat through the darkness, he seemed to be a part of, the small brown bird fluttered towards the, in spite of the season, still fairly thick wood at the borders of the Village Hidden in the Leaves and vanished between the numerous tree trunks, only to be brought back into the small clearing that was illuminated by the faint light of the full moon, by a noticeably huge, almost bearish seeming man on whose shoulder it had landed.  
Wearing a long, dark grey cloak, the man was almost invisible, as he stepped out of the sombre forest; just the blue collar of the clothes he was wearing underneath it, formed a little contrast to the obscure scenery and his movements revealed his presence as well.

"That took some time – I was just about to send another one…" He stated in a soft and calm voice, while he used one of his large fingers to pat the little bird on his shoulder with astounding sensitivity, you wouldn't expect from a man of his size.

"Where are the others?" His opposite asked, not going into details, as to why he was late or anything, but letting his eyes wander the forest edge up and down, not moving his head while doing so.

"Over here!" Another man exclaimed noisily, while he jumped out of a tree and landed right beside the big, kind of clumsy looking man. He was wearing an equally long, dark cloak as the man to his side and yet he wasn't even nearly as inconspicuous as that one was: he also had his hood pulled deep into his face, therefore you could merely see the lower part of it, but the blade of the huge, obsolete sword he was carrying on his back, reflected the pale light of the moon whenever it broke through the cloud cover and threw it into various directions, so he was rather easy to make out in the darkness.

"Well, well if it isn't our boss… Say, how were your holidays? – must have been very relaxing, since you knew we took care of all your business here, right?" He directed his sharp eyes at the dark-haired man in front of him, the ever-present cheeky grin on his face making it hard to tell his actual emotion, but the accusatory undercurrent in his voice was almost impossible not to hear.

"This better be important-" The newcomer stated in a blank voice, scrutinizing the two men in front of him sceptically, until the one with the sword finally answered: "Tze… you should think that after all this time you'd have a little more trust in us…" He sighed affectedly, shaking his head with closed eyes to underline his consternation, before he carried on with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Of course it is – a lot has happened while you were gone… you'll be delighted…" He implied secretively, while some heavy clouds gathered in front of the moon again and threw their shadows over the whole area, so no one saw how the smile on his face carried on broadening.

…

…


	38. Mission: Failure

**38. Mission: Failure**

"It's half past eleven now – where the hell is he?!" Naruto, who was wandering restlessly from one side of the roomy kitchen to the other, asked for about the one-hundredths time this hour, just changing the frustration-level in his voice and the time designation in his sentence. His two female team-mates and the big black dog sat on the floor in front of the dark, wooden table, every once in a while getting up to peek out of the window or into the corridor, in search for any sign of the man they were obliged to keep watch on, but in vain; he still hadn't returned yet and the mood in the Uchiha-mansion got palpably tenser the more time passed.

"Didn't your Bunshins find him yet?" Sakura asked yet again in a distressed voice, but just as always she received the same answer.

"No, nothing… even though they should have long been done with scouring through the village by now…" The blonde ninja replied, completely churned up inside, while the pinkette just heaved a weary sigh and directed her eyes to the door, as if expecting the Uchiha to just walk in as if nothing had happened.

"Guys…" Sayuri, who had remained completely silent the entire time, finally raised her voice, even though you could clearly hear that it cost her quite some overcoming to do so.

"I guess there's something I didn't tell you…" She really didn't want to do this, but Sasuke was already thirty minutes over the time limit they had set and so she felt she had to tell her team-mates, about her suspicions.

"About Sasuke?!" Naruto exclaimed in a shocked voice, spinning around like a scalded cat: "What is it? Spill it out already!"

"Well, you know… I'm not a hundred percent sure about this, that's why I didn't tell you earlier, but I think that he's been gone one night before, right after we started sharing a room…" She stated hesitantly, her eyes fixed on her hands that rested on her knees and clasped the fabric of her kimono almost frantically.

"What?! Are you kidding? How can you not be sure whether he was there or not and why the hell didn't you tell us earlier anyway?" Sakura snapped at her, apparently glad to have something she could direct her tension at. "We are a team, right? - so don't you think it concerns us, too?"

"Of course it does, but that was while I was still ill and so I didn't know whether it was just some sort of feverish dream or reality and I didn't want to bring him into trouble for nothing… that's why I kept it to myself…" The violet-haired girl explained herself in a low voice, still unable to detach here eyes from her knees and direct them at her team-mates, out of fear of looking into their disappointed faces.

"So you thought he had sneaked out at night and you did nothing about it – even though you knew perfectly well, that it was our mission to make sure that something like this didn't happen?" The Haruno enquired, furiously banging a flat hand on the table, which shook violently under the impact, but didn't break down like the last one that had experienced an outburst of fury by the pinkette. The loud bang cut through the silence with surprising intensity and caused Sayuri to wince, especially since her already guilty conscience increased even more and she was overwhelmed by a sudden surge of remorse.

"I didn't do _nothing_…" The violet-haired girl defended herself meekly, even though judging from her tone you'd guess that she wasn't so sure of that herself. "I talked to him and kept a closer watch on him after that…"

"Oh, really? Well why didn't you say so right away - that changes just about everything! So what did he tell you then, huh?" The pink-haired Kunoichi ranted in a sarcastic tone, hardly able to keep the frustration out of her voice. "I mean we are just talking about Uchiha Sasuke, also known as the impersonated honesty– there's no way he could have lied to you, right?"

"Cut it out you two!" Naruto finally intervened in their quarrel, his shaky voice catching the attention of his two team-mates that had almost forgotten about his presence, but now looked a little startled into his infuriated face.

"Naruto-kun…" Sayuri murmured feebly, but fell silent as she caught sight of Naruto's trembling fists, he was clenching so tightly that his knuckles were turning white from the pressure.

"What's the matter with you two?" He scolded them in a quavering voice, while he shifted his eyes from one girl to the other: "You're so absorbed in your bickering - it seems you've forgotten what this is all about!"

The two girls directed a puzzled expression at the blonde boy in front of them and listened intently as he carried on scolding them: "It seems like you have totally lost it! Sakura-chan – from how you're talking, it sounds as if you seriously believe that Sasuke has been scheming something the entire time! It's true that he's been a Nuke-nin, but he is back now! Just because he's still under observation, doesn't mean he's locked in this mansion – he can go wherever he likes – he should have told us though, but you know exactly that that's just not like him, but that doesn't mean that he has changed sides again… or that he has never been on our side in the first place…"

Sakura cast her eyes to the side, after Naruto had finished his sermon; realizing that he was probably right and that she had given up too early.

"And you, Sayuri-chan" The Uzumaki now turned to the other girl who already wore a guilty expression on her face, but he nevertheless started berating her: "You should have told us. You said you didn't want to get him into trouble - just what do you think we would have done? Did you think we'd just run off and tell everyone we come across about it – don't you have any trust in us at all?" Naruto looked at her with a pained expression, making her feel even more miserable than she already did. Biting her lower lip to keep it form shaking, she shifted her eyes to the floor again, trying to fight back her tears, even though they had already started flooding her eyes.

A subdued mood filled the neat kitchen of the huge mansion now; the three people inside doing their best to avoid each others gazes, while they were still engrossed in their thinking.  
"I'm sorry…" Naruto eventually stated, feeling guilty for the harsh words he had used, as he saw how they affected his team-mates.

"No… you're right…" Sayuri stated hesitantly, trying her best to shoot an encouraging look at the blonde, while she tried to smile away her tears.

"We really did behave incredibly stupid." The pinkette added as she got to her feet before she exclaimed in a feigned cheerful voice: "Maybe we should go and search for Sasuke as well – I mean let's be realistic – I don't really think that your clones will be able to do the job all by themselves…"

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed in an offended voice, before a small grin started to appear on his lips. "Allright then, let's go! – Get up Sayuri-chan!"

"Okay…" She stated and got to her feet as well, glad to have something to do other than just sitting around and doing nothing.

"Allright then, the one who finds him first, gets invited to free Ramen from the others!" Naruto hollered while he created a bunch of further shadow clones that ran out of the kitchen at once, joining the other clones in their search.

"There's no way I'll loose!" The blonde prophesied with a self-assured grin and ran right after his bunshins, while the two girls just sighed and followed their 'team-mates' at a comparatively slow pace.

…

…

The cutting winter wind raged over the land and shook the trees heavily, causing the last remaining leaves to fall from their branches and drift through the air, wafting almost playfully around the three shadowy figures that stood at the edge of a deep, sombre forest.

"Go ahead…" The dark-haired figure ordered the man in front of him, as the clouds passed by and the moon once again bathed the whole area in its soft, dim light. "… and where is –"

"Stop right there!" The man with the blade on his back interrupted him brusquely: "You don't seriously want to ruin this sweet moment of reunion, by asking after that stupid bitch?!" He asked in a melodramatic voice, while he turned around and crossed his arms in front of his chest in a feigned offended manner; however the tall man to his side didn't show any interest in his theatrical tour de force and answered in his stead.

"She's with the suspect… probably still interrogating him…" He mused, directing his eyes at the dark-haired man in front of him, whose interest he had apparently awoken.

"Suspect…?" He asked in a nonchalant voice; it seemed as if he had missed more than he had imagined.

"Yeah, but I doubt that she is still interrogating him – five minutes alone with that foureyed chatterbox and you'd spill everything, just to get rid of her…I really feel sorry for that poor guy."

"If your tolerance limit is that low, maybe it was a bad idea to recruit you…" The apparent leader of their little group stated dryly, raising an eyebrow while his eyes rested with mocking apathy on the man in front of him.  
"Ah, come on – I was just kiddin' - you know that I've endured her company for way longer…" He defended himself, while a bitter smile crossed his lips and revealed his sharp, white teeth, before he added: "I'm dead inside though, but I've endured…"  
"Lead me to her…" The dark-haired man ordered and turned his eyes to the man in front of him again, who hence sighed dramatically, before he cast a piercing glance at his opposite: "Only just back and already acting bossy again, huh? Fine follow me then!" He grinned archly and jumped into the nearest tree, vanishing in the dark forest behind him, closely followed by the rest of his team.

…

…

It was almost three in the morning now and they still hadn't been able to find even the tiniest trace of their lost team-mate. They were convinced now that he wasn't in the village any longer, even though none of the guards, positioned at the gates had seen him leave through them… but they knew that if Sasuke had wanted to leave unseen he would have succeeded in doing so without any difficulties – a fact that had them worried even more: Why would Sasuke want to leave so suddenly? Something must have happened and gone unnoticed by them, therefore they didn't trust in their own discernment any longer… That was the main reason, why they were now standing in the office of the Hokage, waiting for her to show up, since she had already been asleep - not surprising, considering the late or rather early hour.

They hadn't meant to go to Tsunade that early, they had actually intended it as a last resort, however since they had been on the scout for more than three hours and bearing in mind what Sayuri had told them, they had decided to fill the Hokage in already – especially since they also contemplated that something might have happened to Sasuke, even though they didn't really believe it.

Standing in front of Tsunade's empty oak desk, like intimidated pupils expecting to get a detention, the three Shinobi had been waiting for the head of their village for almost fifteen minutes, when the door finally flew open and a blonde, dishevelled woman scuffled into the office, not casting a single glance at any of them, but walking straight to her desk and seating herself in her chair, while her personal assistance, looking as fresh as a daisy, entered right after her and just positioned herself next to the door, nodding at the three people in front of her salutatory.

"It is three o'clock in the morning…" The Godaime rasped in a grave voice, throwing a menacing glare through narrowed eyes at the attendant part of Team7: "I can't think of anything that could be important enough to justify your disturbance of my sleep, so in case you're unable to convince me of the opposite you'll end up doing D-rank missions for the rest of your ninja career."

"WHAT?!" Naruto shrieked ashen-faced, the word 'D-rank' making him completely forget about the reason why they were here. "You can't do that! That's-"

"Naruto!" Sakura cut him off sharply, before she turned to the Fifth and said in an apologetic but also urgent voice: "We are really sorry for waking you up, but it really is this important…"

"I hope so – for your sake at least…" The blonde woman yawned disinterestedly and rested her head on her arms, she had crossed on the table. "What are you waiting for? Spill it out already or I'll feel forced to sharpen your sentence…"

"Please, Tsunade-sama – Sasuke is gone." Sakura explained desperately and watched how the head of the Hokage shoot up at once, before she exclaimed with a shocked expression on her now wide-awake seeming face: "WHAT?!"

"We've searched through the entire village but we couldn't find him." Naruto added and flinched as the honey-eyed woman banged her hand on the table and rose up from her chair.

"I can't believe it – you had the simple mission of keeping watch on him and you seriously lost him?! – Do you have any idea what this means for us?" She asked, but the three shinobi just shook their heads miserably, not daring to look directly at the infuriated woman, who seemed ready to explode.

"Of course you don't know it – how could you? No one knows what it means – there have been so many inconsistencies with his return, so many scenarios we have to take into account…" Her voce failed her, so she clasped a hand to her forehead and let herself fall into her chair again, taking a deep breath and messaging her sleeves before she turned to the dark-haired woman at the other end of the room. "Shizune – order our best ANBU squads to scout the area for Uchiha Sasuke and bring him back – if necessary even by force."

"Alright, Tsunade-sama." She stated and was just about to walk out of the room, when the blonde held her back again: "And send for Nara Shikamaru and Hatake Kakashi, we might need their help here."

Directing another nod at her boss, Shizune finally rushed out of the door and began carrying out her task.

As soon as she was gone, Tsunade leant back in her chair and shot a reproachful look at the three ninjas in front of her, who just stood there like a picture of misery, but didn't dare say anything again…

About ten minutes of profound, tense silence later, Shikamaru, looking even drowsier than the Hokage herself, entered the office and greeted the people inside of it with a loud yawn.

"What is it now…?" He asked with an annoyed expression, stretching his arms over his head while he walked towards Team7 and positioned himself right next to them.

"We're still waiting for Kakashi to turn up. I'll start explaining once he's here so I don't have to do it twice." Tsunade stated as she got up and walked over the moss-green carpeted floor towards the window, watching a great number of shinobi, wearing white masks of different shapes and with different patterns, gather in front of the Hokage building and swarm out to the four winds simultaneously.

"Sorry for the delay" Kakashi apologized as he swung the thick wooden door open, which creaked unpleasantly loud from the movement and walked into the room, apparently too tired for his usual appearance-procedure with the smoke and all that fuss… He shot a scrutinizing glance at the tense people inside of the bureau, until his eyes reached Shikamaru, who merely shrugged, looking about as clueless as he did.

"Then we are complete now…" Tsunade turned around to face the people in front of her and started to explain: "I've just been informed by Team7 that they've lost Uchiha Sasuke." Kakashi's and Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly, while the other three shinobi just looked down guiltily, not needing the Hokage's accusatory words to add to the guilt they were already feeling…

"I've called for you, so we can go through the possible scenarios we have to expect and prepare some emergency plans." Her eyes rested on the Nara, while she said that, since it was generally known that, with his high IQ, Shikamaru was able to go through over 200 situations and strategies simultaneously and choose the best one out of these in practically no time.

"I'll start here, since I've prepared for a situation such as this from the very day he returned" Tsunade's eyes wandered over the five ninjas standing in front of her, before she cast them down a little and muttered in a discouraged tone: "Even though I hoped it would turn into a needless effort…"

Her eyes fell shut in a pensive manner, so she didn't see how her words affected the people in front of her. She shook her head a little, as if meaning to shake of the feeling that was starting to overcome her and opened them again, explaining in a clear and sharp voice: "When Sasuke came back, he said he had left Orochimaru, because he couldn't teach him anything new, but it is very unlikely that Orochimaru would have let him go like that… therefore we need to consider that Sasuke has been sent as a spy, either to gather information, or to prepare a coming assault on the Hidden Leave –"

"No Way! He would never do that! We are talking about Sasuke here – he is one of us again, he wouldn't betray us like that…" The blonde boy defended his best friend vigorously, even though he himself had some doubts about the trustworthiness of his own words…Nevertheless he tried to save his friend's neck, by interposing a speculation of his own: "What if Orochimaru came to take him back? Maybe Sasuke needs our help!"

"Rather improbable, but possible… we can't tell for sure and that's where the real problem lies…" Tsunade sighed and rubbed her sleeves, pressing her eyes shut tightly, before she enquired: "When did you notice that he was gone and when was the last time that you've seen him?"

The three shinobi of Team7 exchanged some uncertain glances, matching their rather crouched posture and their dejected countenance perfectly, before Naruto straightened himself and started to retell the last part of their day: "The last time we've seen him was during dinner, we – wait a minute! What if he was so disgusted by the food that he took to his heels? - No offence, Sakura-chan!" The blonde pondered and in consideration of his incredible naivety, he might have seriously believed this to be true, however he was brought back down to earth pretty quickly, as Sakura's flat hand collided painfully hard with the back of his head; even the sound of the hollow bang, causing everyone in the small bureau to flinch - everyone except for Sakura at least, since she just groused mercilessly: "Baka! This is no time for your silly jokes, so cut it out!"

"Ah – okay, okay, Sakura-chan, I'm sorry." He whined an apology, clasping his arms around his head to keep it from crumbling apart, before he carried on with watery eyes: "Okay, well, as we've finished eating he left the room without saying anything and as I've searched him, just about thirty minutes or maybe an hour later he was gone. I went back into the kitchen then and asked Sakura-chan and Sayuri-chan if they knew where he was, but they didn't, so we've decided to wait until eleven o'clock and search for him if he hadn't returned by then… which he hadn't, so we've spent the time from then on, until about thirty minutes ago, with searching through the entire village, but we couldn't find him; that's when we came here…" Naruto finally finished and looked at the Hokage, who had just opened her mouth to say something, when she was interrupted by Sayuri: "What about the bird?"

"Right, the bird! I've completely forgotten about the tiny guy…" Naruto reminisced with a faraway expression about the little creature that had been practically his pet for nearly five wonderful minutes.

"What bird?" Tsunade asked sceptically and Shikamaru and Kakashi also eyed the blonde rather uncomprehendingly, but Sakura started to clarify things for them: "While we were eating, a bird came flying into the kitchen and landed right in Sasuke's cup of tea. It just sat there and stared at him, until Sayuri picked it out again… a short time later Sasuke left the room and right after that the bird flew off again, as well…" Sakura pondered, only just becoming aware of the chronology of these events.

"Maybe the bird was some kind of messenger…" Kakashi mused, his one visible eye meeting the shocked expressions of his students.

"Tze - and we even talked about how weird this whole situation was… and yet we didn't even suspect that there might be more to it…" Sakura stumbled, more to herself than to anyone else, staring through unfocused, blank eyes to the front, appearing as rigid as a pillar of salt.

"But a bird…?" Naruto threw in with a sceptical cadence in his voice: "Doesn't really sound like Orochimaru, if you ask me…"

"Well he couldn't just let a snake wriggle though our window – than we would have known at once…" Sayuri stated, even though right now, she had some slight doubts that they really would have known it then; after all the bird hasn't exactly been inconspicuous either and they hadn't even had the slightest suspicions about it…

While thinking about all these things, she nervously fiddled around with her fingers, every once in a while trying to blow an annoying strand of hair out of her eyes until she just pushed it behind her ear and looked to the side as Kakashi raised his voice: "Maybe it wasn't Orochimaru, but someone else…"  
"But who?" Tsunade asked, anxiously skimming a hand back and forth over the abrasive surface of her oak table; she didn't like the turn, things were taking, everything was way too vague for her taste and the clueless expressions on her opposites' faces made clear that they were none the wiser, either…

"Maybe it was one of Orochimaru's subordinates that just acted as a messenger … maybe the bird was a sign for something…" Some startled expressions turned towards the violet-haired girl after she had proclaimed her assumption which again brought Orochimaru into the centre of attention and Kakashi took up her idea and continued: "Maybe the fact that Sasuke has left the village now of all times, means that they are planning an attack soon…"

Tsunade's eyes widened at that point and everyone else was also staring around rather uneasily, until a slight cough on the part of Shikamaru, who had remained utterly silent up to now, caught everyone's attention.

"There is something else that had bothered me all along…" He started, looking into the faces of his comrades that seemed to be strung to breaking point, in anticipation of his ideas. "The Uchiha came back, somewhat three years after he left, right?" Some quiet nods, affirmed his assumption so he carried on: "I'm no expert on that subject, but from what I've heard, Orochimaru has to find a new vessel for his reanimation jutsu every three years – so it is very unlikely that he would let his chosen subject go just like that and not put up a fight to get him back, especially after all the time and effort he has put into his training…"

"We are all well aware of that, so what are you driving at?" Tsunade asked him, furrowing her brow, which caused the Nara to sigh, apparently annoyed about being rushed, as he so often was, before he finally elucidated the essence of his assumption: "As I said I am no expert on that subject, but maybe Orochimaru never let go of the Uchiha – maybe he did perform his reanimation technique according to plan and came back to Konoha in Sasuke's body, for who knows what reason, but it sure has something to do with the destruction of the Hidden Leave."

A breathless silence followed Shikamaru's words, everyone in the need to digest what they had just heard, while their expressions pretty much revealed their inner state.

Everybody was more or less speechless and stunned, and started going through the events of the past weeks in search for any sign that might confirm Shikamaru's theory, hoping not to find anything, even though they had noticed before that Sasuke had behaved rather uncommonly and out of character at times… but that didn't mean it hadn't been him in the first place: the thought of having spent the last couple of weeks, living together with Orochimaru was so absurd that it was almost funny, but just almost…

Especially Sayuri had a hard time with taking Shikamaru's theory into account; thinking back of the night she had spent with Sasuke in that cave, just imagining it was Orochimaru instead of him, made her feel terribly nauseous, so she moved a hand to her tense neck and forced herself to take a deep breath, trying to fight back the pictures that started to invade her head – there was no way that it had been Orochimaru, even though his behaviour that night had been extremely unusual for Sasuke, it had nevertheless been him. They all knew him for years now and they sure would have noticed if it had just been some lookalike – at least she wanted to believe that that was the case, but apparently Naruto felt that same way about this whole thing as she did, since as soon as he had recovered himself again, he exclaimed in a loud voice, appearing completely wrought up inside: "No way! We've been with him, almost twenty-four hours a day for almost an entire month – we would have noticed if it hadn't been him! I know we would…"

Another long silence followed Naruto's desperate words, before Shizune, who had shortly before re-entered the room, asked: "Tsunade-sama, what are you going to do now?"

Sighing wearily, Tsunade once again started messaging her sleeves, before she started to reflect about their possibilities with a concentrated expression on her face: "The last time Orochimaru attacked, he was supported by Suna-Gakure… Fortunately they are our allies now, but still, we need to assume that he wouldn't attack us on his own… accordingly we need to be prepared to repel a major offensive, which means we need to tighten the guards at the borders drastically…" The blonde woman started announcing her plans, when Shikamaru added: "That would just secure us from attacks from the outside, but what if something happens from the inside? We still don't know the reason for the Uchiha's stay during all this time, maybe he has plotted or prepared something…"

Weird how quickly they had adopted the idea that 'the Uchiha', since they no longer referred to him by his first name, had betrayed them again and disposed of everything that militated against it…

"This means, we have to fend off unknown forces from the outside, while we also have to consider the existence of some unidentified dangers from the inside…" Kakashi summed up their situation, his gaze tightly fixed on the table in front of him, as if it was some object of greatest importance that could help them come up with the right answers to the numerous questions that still occupied them.

"Worst case scenario: some circumjacent villages hear about our desperate plight and decide to seize the chance to destroy Konoha-Gakure by ganging up against us." Shikamaru concluded and looked into the paralysed face of the Hokage, who turned her head to him with almost robot-like stiffness and asked with a strained voice: "So what do you propose?"

"As long as we don't know what's going on, we should keep things secret… Just inform the most trustworthy persons about what is really going on – this way we can shield us from attacks just based on the idea of a weakened state of our village and besides we can avoid a panic, which would be favourable, in case we really have to expect some threats from within our village…" The brown-haired ninja proposed looking at the sceptic features of the Hokage.  
"But we have to put everyone on red alert, as long as we don't know the purpose of the Uchiha's stay here… and how can I mobilize our entire troops and have them run through the village without giving a reason for it?" Tsunade interjected, getting up from her chair and walking restlessly through her small bureau, but the Nara had something up his sleeves for this situation as well: "The first days we can disguise it as an exercise for a case of emergency… after that we just put our ANBUs and some Jounin on the case – we'd have to pass on doing too many high-ranked missions in the next time though and mainly let our Genin and maybe also some Chunin do the work, since they are the ones we can relinquish rather than anyone else for this mission… but it should buy us enough time to at least realize the danger and then act according to that…"

Gritting her teeth, the Godaime weighed the words of the considerably younger man, torn by an inner conflict, resulting from the knowledge that she, as the Hokage, carried responsibility for an entire village, for thousands of people, therefore she couldn't afford coming to a rash decision, same as she couldn't afford doing nothing… At times like these, she really regretted having accepted the position of the Hokage, especially since she knew that she had just been number-two choice: actually they had meant Jiraiya for the job, but since he had refused, they had switched to the next available Sannin and since asking Orochimaru was out of question, they had come to her… And now she was sitting here, bound to this old table and the small office, forced to make momentous decisions each and every single day, unable to carry on with her old lifestyle, while that pervy old sage was doing his globetrotter-thing again, making sure not to miss a single spot – on a girl – for his inquiries, while she was left here, badly needing his advice…

"Tsunade-sama?" It was the second time now that Kakashi tried to address the blonde woman, who was apparently too absorbed in her own thoughts, to notice his repeated attempts of catching her attention. With a frown on his face, the Hatake exchanged some insecure glances with the other people in the room, before he stepped to the side, as Shizune pushed her way through the row of people that was reaching from one side of the room to the other and walked straight towards the leader of their village, directing a worried look at the apathetic woman that now really did look like a woman at the age of 50 years, before she gently stroked her shoulder and called her name again. This action finally woke the honey-eyed woman from her trance; she raised her head slightly and her beforehand blank eyes focused on the people in front of her piercingly, but despite all that you could still see a deep set tiredness glowing in them that was impossible to blink away just like that.

"Tsunade-sama, Shikamaru is right." The grey-haired Jounin once again addressed the Godaime, this time sure of her undivided attention though: "Keeping the main information to ourselves is probably the best way of approaching this situation – it should give us the time we need to detect whatever there is and make all the necessary preparations; nevertheless I'm of the opinion that we should send a confidential message to the Kazekage and ask for Suna-Gakure's aid, in case it comes to the worst…" Kakashi concluded and looked at the blonde in anticipation for a reply, as did everyone else in the small bureau; it seemed as if they were all confident about their decision, completely unlike the Fifth, who again let out a weary sigh, nervously ticking with one of her fingers onto the surface of her wooden desk in time with the annoyingly loud clock that was standing in one of the huge shelves at the side of the room, reminding her with mocking perseverance of the late hour in which she was actually supposed to be asleep and recover from her tough day; however now she was sitting here in this office, too tired to trust the accuracy of her own judgment and nevertheless forced to make her decision.

"Allright…" She finally muttered, rather half-heartedly though, since she still had her doubts about keeping such important information to herself, but finally accepting that it was for the best of the entire village… Even though it had taken her much of an effort already, she knew that this had just been the easy part of all this – the worst was still to come: she would have to inform the elders, who had been against Sasuke's return from the very first day, of the momentary situation and their plans and endure their inevitable criticism and clamouring… there was no way she could survive this sober: "Shizune!" She called out, so dreaded by these thoughts that she had actually forgotten that her assistant was still standing right beside her, however a good assistant and above all friend as she was, she didn't even need to ask what her boss wanted, but went to a small, almost antique looking cabinet, appearing a little lost next to the huge shelves next to it and pulled a bottle of Sake and three glasses out of it, which she then placed on Tsunade's desk and filled them. As the blonde woman was just about to grip for her glass, her eyes fell on the three Chunin and the one Genin in front of her, their miserable appearance causing her features to soften in sympathy, before her face hardened again and she exclaimed in a clear, business-like voice: "Naruto, Sakura, Sayuri. Since you haven't been able to fulfil your task of supervising Uchiha Sasuke, your mission will be considered as a failure. Shizune!"

With a sweeping gesture of her hand, the Fifth indicated to her assistant to fetch some further glasses, earning a questioning and somewhat hesitant glance from the black-haired woman since she wasn't exactly fond on giving alcohol to minors.

"They probably need it more than anyone else in here…" Tsunade's voice had softened again, as she looked at the downcast people in front of her that were, even though she was damn mad at them at the moment, actually quite precious to her. Talking about all these things had made it painfully clear to them, that there was no hope of having misinterpreted things. Sasuke was gone again and the fact that he had betrayed his village a second time, had left them – his friends – behind a second time, shattered all hope that he would ever return again. In fact he couldn't – considering how hard it had been for him to come back after the first time, it would be impossible for him to ever return to Konoha after having betrayed it twice. However there was no need to worry about something like that; it was evident that he didn't want to return and from what they've had to listen to for the last hour, he apparently even aimed at the destruction of the Hidden Leave… He had just been acting a roll all this time and they hadn't even realized it. Furthermore they had taken him back and treated him as if nothing had ever happened between them in the past, had opened their hearts to him and yet it hadn't been enough to make him stay, they had both failed as ninjas and as friends… Maybe it wasn't that bad to believe it had been Orochimaru and not Sasuke…

As all these realizations started to invade their minds, even though something in their subconsciousness struggled vehemently against it, the three shinobi drained their glasses, feeling to hollow to even grimace, as the sharp tasting liqueur found its way down their throats, leaving behind a burning feeling in their gorges, but they were just too distracted and numb to even realize it. They didn't get any happier or chattier either, as the warmth of the alcohol started to spread from their throats to their entire bodies, in fact, it was giving even more substance to their thoughts, as the rest of their bodily functions drifted into insignificance and a desperate melancholic feeling started to take over their minds. However they weren't the only ones who were overcome by these kind of emotions, they would have probably felt different, if they had known that at the same time, the person whom their thoughts had circled around in the past couple of hours, was standing, equally smitten by a melancholic mood, even though no one who'd look at him would have been able to tell the inner turmoil he was beset with, on a small plateau, savouring what he thought to be the last images he should ever catch of the village he had once called his home, before he, with grim determination, once again turned his back on his past life and joined the group of people that would accompany him to the day, they had prepared for in all this time…

…

…


	39. Phantasms

**39.**** Phantasms**

She still remembered it as if it had been yesterday, when they had walked back to the Uchiha mansion, after having passed the rest of the night in the Hokage tower. It had already been early in the morning, but the sun had been too lazy to get up just then, so they had spent their journey through the dark streets in a pensive and somewhat unnatural silence.

Tired as they've been from searching the most part of the night for the person they had thought to be their friend and drowsy from the alcohol they had consumed, but that had unfortunately failed it's effect of making the world seem a better place and covering up their sorrows, their way back had seemed endlessly long to them, almost as if they were waist-deep sunken in an unyielding mire, forcing them with mocking pleasure, to spend even more time with reflecting over the past events and casting the blame for everything that had happened on themselves.

Not having exchanged a single syllable the entire time, they'd eventually reached the place that had become their home for almost an entire month, but now appeared cold and unwelcoming to them, almost the same way it had, on the very day they had been forced to move into this place. The bald towering walls of the empty mansion emitted an imposing and yet hostile impression, as if the disappearance of its owner had changed the whole character of this building and turned it inimical to everyone who didn't have true Uchiha blood running through their veins.

In spite of all that, they hadn't even faltered a minute to enter the vast mansion and go straight to their rooms, not having any nostalgic feelings while walking through the house they had spent so much time in together and gotten closer to each other, but feeling completely numb as the realization hadn't entirely hit on them yet and the bleariness of their perception gave everything a dream-like, no - nightmarish appearance… secretly they had still been waiting to finally wake up, but they just wouldn't.

They had walked through the single rooms, to collect all the things they had brought here and started packing their bags, not waiting for the others, but leaving this oppressive, memory-laden building as soon as they were done.

Each one of them had their own way of dealing with what had happened, but what they all had in common, was that they, more or less consciously, avoided each others company – maybe because they were afraid that a meeting would bring up too many unpleasant memories and that they would end up blaming each other, even though, as the realizations finally started to become aware to them, they knew that there was just one person to blame for what had happened and that was Sasuke himself.

While, after the first time he had left, they had felt helpless and sad, every time someone said his name; now that he had left again, they merely felt bitter and hurt when the talk came to him and they no longer bothered to defend him, in case someone talked bad about him, as they used to do before, even though it still anguished them, somewhere in a deep part of their heart that was still clinging desperately to a tiny piece of hope, unable to give up yet.

It would have been easy to guess from their behaviour that something wasn't right. After all the three remaining shinobi of Team7 were surrounded by an ever-present and clearly palpable cloud of despondency that didn't seem to match their actual cheerful and lively characters at all, especially when it came to Naruto, but since the general situation in the whole Fire Country was fairly strained and especially dubious, given that everything about Sasuke's escape and the possible attack by Orochimaru was still held top secret, the alteration in their spirits wasn't as conspicuous as it would have been at other times.

The Hokage had acted on Shikamaru's advice and concealed the entire operation as an emergency exercise; however after no more than a week, people had started to become suspicious and therefore the Godaime had been forced to withdraw most of the ninja-squads that had been placed within Konoha-Gakure. They hadn't been able to encounter any threat anyway and were positive that the village was clean, therefore protracting their stay, would have been pointless. Relieving as this discovery might have been, it also raised new questions, especially about the purpose of Sasuke's stay, but they couldn't find any answers to them. There has been neither an attack by Orochimaru nor any other suspicious mobilizations of troops – everything was perfectly calm and peaceful and yet there were still great numbers of ninjas, guarding the area around the Village Hidden in the Leaves, prepared to act the very second the current mood should change. Better safe than sorry. They never got any information about when an attack should take place and where, so they couldn't let their guard down - in fact they didn't even know for sure if they were going to be attacked at all – they were still left in the dark and just couldn't find their way out of it.

The exchange of information with Suna-Gakure hadn't brought any clarity into the situation either, but at least they were reassured, that in case it came to the worst, they wouldn't have to face it all by themselves. But the fact, that more and more missions were about delivering messages to the Sand Village and that noticeably many Suna-nins were seen in and around the Leave Village, for no particular reason, stroke many people as odd and rumours started to spread like wildfire.

No matter how much effort they invested into covering up the entire affair, most of the people still remained suspicious and even became rather alarmed, as they still didn't receive any plausible explanations and therefore made up scenarios of their own that, in some cases, even came quite close to the truth.

The few people who actually knew what was going on, hardly stood out of the rest, since they weren't frightened by some images they had invented as explanations for all the uncertainties, but were scared by the truth itself that probably surpassed some people's wildest imaginations by far. No matter how they felt about it – and a lot of people had their doubts about the utmost secrecy that was surrounding this entire operation – there was nothing they could do, other than carrying out their assigned tasks, whether they understood the reason for it or not.

Many things about Konoha's daily life had changed drastically, lately: even around noon the street were almost as deserted as they usually were at night time and many parents refused to let their children go on missions any longer, which was a major problem, considering that they had planned to use mainly Genin to perform the incoming missions, consequently the still active ninjas had their hands full to keep up with all the accruing work, which strained them in most cases both physically and psychologically, as for example when it came to Team7.

…

…

Naruto still tried to act cheerful and hopeful, every time he coincidentally ran into one of his team-mates, eager to keep up the unlikely illusion that Sasuke might not have left on his free will, or that he has had a good reason for leaving, without telling anyone – even though he was hardly able to believe in these words himself.

He had once promised to Sakura that he would bring Sasuke back to Konoha – it had been a promise of a lifetime and he sure wouldn't break it. Even though it seemed almost impossible at the moment that he would be able to keep it… he wasn't really able to do anything direct right now, since he had to act on order of the Hokage and top priority right now was the defence of Konoha… however the least he could do was to comfort his friends and make them believe in him – that was probably the reason why he was giving them a wide berth: it was hard to keep a happy face and shed words of solace, when he himself needed nothing more than a shoulder to lean on, or someone to take away something of the weight, he had burdened himself with.

In all these years he had never faltered in his confidence that his best friend would return home, to the place where he belonged to; however now his believe was gravely shaken, even though he would never admit that to himself or anyone else. If he, as Sasuke's best friend, stopped believing in him, than there was probably no one else who would carry on believing in him either and then he was lost…

'The place to return to is where someone things of you' – that's what Jiraiya had told him a long time ago – those words had worked out for Yûkimaru and Guren, so why shouldn't they work out for Sasuke, as well? If he'd carry on believing in his former team-mate, there was at least a chance that he could make him return again, if he'd just give up from the start, he was sure to loose. That was the reason why he'd carry on fighting, even if the odds were against him - he had never been one to give up easily and the time for him to change that sure hadn't come yet …

He remembered a conversation he had once had with Sayuri, right after Sasuke had woken up in the hospital; she had asked him what he would do when Sasuke disappointed them another time and left, after they had even raised up their hopes and put their trust in him again. His answer had been that life wasn't easy and never would be and that nothing could possibly justify giving up, no matter how hard or desperate the situation might seem – and he still believed in these words. After all they resembled his attitude of life - how could he ever look into a mirror again if he would give up now of all times? – He would not only be disappointed with himself, but he would also let down the people that believed in him and that was something he definitely couldn't live with.

That's why he was again spending his entire time with carrying out missions, even though Tsunade had actually meant to leave out all Genins, from mission's concerning the retrieval of Sasuke, or the defence of Konoha against the unknown enemies, but he had nevertheless been able to convince, or rather blackmail her (a pretty easy thing, considering that he was a confidant, who was prone to have a really big mouth) to take part in the missions that were in some way related to his old friend. Up to know he had been unsuccessful though, as had everyone else – there was just nothing happening, but every further eventless day banished the thought that Sasuke had really betrayed them a bit further from his mind, while it on the other hand elucidated the fact that he was probably even farther away by now and that it would become ever harder to find him, the more time elapsed.

There was no use in racking his brain right now, the last time, they had been chasing after him for ages without any success and than he had just come back on his own – maybe this time it would be just as easy too… at least that's what he hoped for…

…

…

Sakura seemed to have abandoned all hope of ever seeing her former crush again and unlike the blonde she didn't feign it to be otherwise. She had drawn back from carrying out any missions with her team lately - even though she really felt like doing something where she could beat someone up - and was spending most of her time in the hospital, burying herself in her work to keep herself from thinking too much…

When he had returned again, she had thought the worst thing that could happen was for him to run straight off again, because that would proof that he hadn't missed them at all in the entire time. However he had shown her that she had been wrong; he had not only implemented her worst case-scenario, but had also topped it. He hadn't left them right away, but had spent some time with them, out of sheer spite, just to raise their hopes and renew the bonds to them, or in other words, to rub some salt into their old wounds that hadn't entirely healed yet, before he had ripped them open completely, by showing that he didn't even care enough about them to stay with them and especially by exhibiting that he didn't even mind betraying his village for a second time. It was like the ultimate slap in the face – he couldn't have come up with anything more scathing and humiliating than this.

She had worked so hard to meet his expectations and had risen above herself… She had wanted to show him so badly what kind of person she had become, but once he had been back, she had again behaved like the same annoying love-struck little girl he had left behind in an empty street before.

Nothing she could have done would have changed anything though. He had come back and now he was gone again. That's how it was. She should have known so right away - after all, leaving was what he could do best – no, the one thing he was even better at, was hurting her. He had once again proven that he had mastered every possible way of hurting her and didn't shrink from applying it…

She sometimes thought about how much pleasure it must have given him, to figure out the most agonizing way to break her heart – as if he would wake up and think something like '_Well, what could I do on this wonderful day to turn Sakura's life into a living hell?_', first thing in the morning, but every time she tried to imagine the way he would look then, she just saw the same bored, blank and cold-hearted expression, he was wearing each and every single day, of his pain inflicting existence. He probably wasn't doing it on purpose – by now hurting her must have become so natural to him that he didn't have to waste much thought on it, he just did it.

Most likely he didn't even know how she was feeling right now, even though she had told him before that she loved him. He probably had no idea what his disappearance had done to her – still did to her. But even if he did, that wouldn't have changed anything about his behaviour, because she - no because they all meant nothing to him. She had known him from childhood on and it had still taken her all these years and all these scars that were now covering her heart, to finally realize that his colossal ego didn't leave any space for another person but himself in his life. No. That would do him wrong – his world didn't only revolve around himself, but also, or maybe even more around his brother – you could say he has a morbid obsession with his own blood-line and there has never even been the slightest chance that she could have changed anything about that.

He was a dead loss. And for all she cared, he could stay away as long as he wanted to; she would never again make the mistake to believe in him, but then again she had pretty much thought the same way after he had left the first time too, but once he'd been back, she had immediately started to behave the way she expected him to like it. Had interrupted her training for extensive shopping tours and had even played the housemaid for him. Had at once claimed him as her own and kept her jealous watch over him, protecting him from every other female being like a lioness would protect her cubs. Had made a fool of herself for absolutely nothing and even though she knew all of that, she hadn't been able to change anything about it and she wasn't sure if it would be any different the next time – if she ever got to see him again that is…

If she could, she would just banish him from her heart, but she wasn't sure if that was possible – you should think that he had been able to do the job for her himself in all this time and yet she has never been able to keep her self-imposed task of staying away from him. But this time it felt different. She's had a lot of love to give, but he had refused it and now her heart was hardly more than a crumbly lump of stone – in the end she would probably become as cold and bitter as he was himself - almost a comforting notion, at least if the very thought of being alike him wouldn't deter her from doing so. Nothing could be further to her, as being anything alike the person she was trying to hate with all her heart.

…

…

Sayuri had at the beginning just drawn back from almost everything – she had needed her time to be alone with her thoughts. This reflective period hadn't lasted long though, since she soon wanted nothing more as to block out all the thoughts that were raging through her head like a thunder storm, leaving behind a trail of desolation and bleakness – it has always been an unloved characteristic of hers to not only brood over things that had actually happened, but to spend even more thoughts on things that eventually could have happened if she had done something differently or if something else had happened that would have changed the entire course of events. For example she had pondered a lot about how she would feel now, if she had given in to his advances back then. Would she feel betrayed now, even if it had just been a one-off? Would she be upset and act like a betrayed and deserted wife? She often uses to interpret more into a situation than there actually is, so maybe she would have regarded his disappearance as a personal betrayal and would now be blind with rage and not disappointed and confused as she in reality was, though she couldn't deny that she was mad at him, too. She even thought about, whether it would have changed anything about his decision of leaving them without even so much as a single word, even though she soon disposed of that thought, since she had already known back then, that the entire thing had been entirely insignificant to him. Almost ironic to think that even though she had been the one, who had rejected him, this entire matter had probably meant far more to her than to him. Right after his return, she had promised herself that she wouldn't let him get close to her again – she should start listening to her own advice, because then she wouldn't be in this silly position now. Since she had done her best not to think about this entire situation, had almost pretended that it hadn't even happened, she had up to now been more or less unaware of how much her feelings for him had grown. At first it had just been on a friendly level, the way it had been before he had left, too and the way it was supposed to be, but after what had happened – or rather not happened between them in Yuki-Gakure (and she still refused to believe it had been Orochimaru), she had discovered that there was maybe more to her feelings than she was willing to accept.

Did she like him? Of course she did – how could she not like him, after he had saved her life for numerous times? The fact that he saved her alone, didn't necessarily have to make her like him – he could still be nothing more than an unsympathetic life-saving asshole, but it at least laid a basis of gratitude to their relationship… The reason why she liked him was probably because of all the time they had spent together and all the difficult situations they had gone through – that was why she felt a very strong connection to every single member of her team, but besides that she had always admired his strength. Not his physical strength, even though that was quite impressive as well, but his strength to carry on, no matter how many obstacles life put in his way. But how did that by any means explain the feelings she was having right now? How come she was spending more time with mulling over whether she liked him or not, rather than with searching for anything that might explain his sudden departure? She wasn't even so sure if what she felt was genuine at all – after all these sentiments didn't come up until he was gone, so maybe it weren't any real feelings, but a subconscious urge to yearn for the very thing that was impossible for her to attain at that moment…

With all these confusing and contradictive thoughts, it wasn't really surprising that Sayuri soon got tangled up in a desperate search for anything that could distract her from her thinking and luckily the current situation offered many employment opportunities for Genin and Chunin alike. Tsunade had decided to skip A- and B-missions completely, unless they were unpostponable and because most of the Jounin were appointed to missions concerning the defence of Konoha, the Genin squads had to do D-rank missions all by themselves, while they were led by one or two Chunin when it came to carrying out C-rank missions and the remaining, higher-ranked missions were done by all-Chunin-squads solely.

Now, almost a month after the state of emergency had been inofficially declared in the Fire Country, Sayuri was heading back to Konoha with a group of high-spirited but completely exhausted Genin in tow, that were eager to prove themselves and proud of having just absolved their first C-rank mission successfully. They had brought some very important and top-secret documents to the Kazekage – or at least that's what she had told them, because no one would have entrusted some freshly appointed Genin any documents of real importance, but at least that little lie had made them take their task all the more serious. In fact they had been so proud of their grave task that they had even refused to hand their delivery to the secretary that had meant to take it, but had insisted on bringing them to the Kazekage personally. Since Sayuri knew Gaara and was on quite friendly terms with him, not least because of her friendship with his sister, it hadn't been much of a problem to arrange a meeting with him – not only that, they had even extended their stay by one day, so they'd have enough time to talk about the current situation, while the three little bundles of energy badly needed the time to recover from the long and exhausting journey through the desert, Suna-Gakure was situated in.

Now that they had successfully accomplished their task and had met some members of Suna-Gakure's VIPs, they were on their way back to their home village. They had already left the desert region behind and were now walking on a narrow beaten path through a sparse forest in the River Country. Since it was still in the middle of winter, most of the trees were rather bare, but that was about the only thing that reminded you of the season. It was unusually warm and dry for January – it had been weeks ago that it had snowed the last time and there were no traces left of it anymore. The first birds were singing their songs, somewhere high up in the bald treetops, the spluttering sound of water, coming from some of the numerous small streams, the Land of River was famous for, filled the air and the occasional whooshing of the brisk wind gave everything a peaceful impression.

However that didn't last long, because as soon as the small group of ninjas came up, it was over with the peacefulness. The three little Genin made enough noise to scare off all animals within a full-mile radius and even though they were every once in a while complaining that their feet were getting tired, their mouths apparently never did. If Sayuri would have to compare them with someone of her generation, than the two boys were definitely like Lee and Naruto, while the girl reminded a lot of Ino, even though she wasn't as loud as her.

The Naruto-like boy was called Ryuu; he had chin-long dark-brown hair, he had tied back in a ponytail and big dark-grey eyes that emitted a bright, but callow impression. He was noticeably small for his age and had a very youthful face that almost looked a little girlish and just as the Uzumaki he had a very big mouth and tried to turn even the smallest task into an adventure, which inevitably led to him getting into a lot of trouble quite often. He had also been the one that had considered the Kazekage's secretary to be too insignificant to accept their delivery and still enthused about his meeting with the sublime Gaara, he had declared to be his new idol.

The other boy of the team was Shin – he had very short coppery hair and relatively dark skin. Despite his age, he was almost as tall as Sayuri - it seemed as if he was making up for what his other team-mate was lacking in height. His favourite topic was apparently training; he hardly talked about anything other than weights and workout-methods and so on – that's what made him seem like a second Lee. He had a quite boisterous character and always challenged everyone to a match, even though he hadn't made any real fighting experience yet, same as the rest of his team, too.

Last but not least there was Emi, she had greenish-black plaited hair and very light eyes that always seemed to hold a worried and slightly wary expression. The small girl seemed to be the most considerate and prudent person in the team and yet her will to keep up with the boys and prove herself equal, if not superior to them, made her forget about all reason and join them in each and every silly stunt they were pulling – even though she never desisted from informing them about all the risks and dangers, something that didn't benefit to her popularity within her team…

"Can we take a break and eat somewhere?" Shin wailed and was at once supported by his female team-mate.

"Seriously, if I won't get any food soon I'll collapse! And my feet are aching, too! They feel so cold, they must have died off, I'm sure of it." The little girl complained and judging from her peaky, almost anaemic looks, she might have really been telling the truth.

"Stop your whining already!" To their surprise it was Ryuu who scolded them – his meeting with the Kazekage sure had left a lasting impression on him. "We just took a break so you can't be that tired already. We're ninjas now, so stop acting like babies!"

His words hadn't failed their effect on his team: Shin's mouth twisted into a lopsided pout and he turned his head to the side, while Emi's cheeks took on the lightest shade of pink and she pursed her lips, biting back another complaint she had just meant to utter. Proud about having been able to put his friends to silence, Ryuu nodded with a self-complacent expression on his face, before he turned to their team leader, eager to get praised, but to his surprise, Sayuri murmured: "We'll take a break here."

"What?" His face dropped slightly, while the faces of his team-mates lighted up immediately.

"It's no use to push you past your limits and it's not like we're in a hurry." She explained, scrutinizing the exhausted faces of the three children closely. They were way too young and inexperienced for these kinds of long-lasting missions, it was hard to imagine how they had gotten through the Genin-exam at all – Emi's physical condition for example was far away from what was actually expected…

"Can we go and buy something to eat?" Shin asked, his obsession with food uncannily reminding of Choji.

"Sure, if you can find a shop anywhere, just go ahead!" Sayuri incited him, but as she saw how the corners of his mouth lifted in an anticipating, enthusiastic smile, she heaved a commiserative sigh. Apparently, Shin had never heard the word sarcasm before and really believed that he could here – in the middle of nowhere – find a shop or restaurant he could dine at. As reality finally caught up to him, his mood sunk even further, if that was possible at all. Grumbling something unintelligible under his breath, he started searching his bag for food, as did the others, too and a broad smile flashed over his face, as he unearthed a handful of chocolate bars from the depths of his backpack, of whose existence he had been completely unaware up to then. Being a kind guy as he was, he shared them at once with his fellow travellers, so they all spent a really pleasant and chocolate-abundant break, after which they were in such high spirits and so full of energy again, that they took up their journey at once, without voicing any complaints in the first three hours.

"Look at those Kunais my father gave me as I graduated the academy" Ryuu pulled a couple of the small daggers out of his pocket and presented them proudly. "You think we'll encounter any enemies on the way? I'm dying to test them on some bad guys!" He stuck his nose high into the air and started swinging one of his Kunais around his finger, but dropped it at once, which was directly commented with a mocking snort by his male team-mate.

"If you keep that up – you can maybe make them laugh themselves to dead. That's about the only chance you have of winning a battle." He chuckled self-complacently, but his friend's retort wasn't long in coming. "Oh really?! – And your only way of winning a battle is by rattling off your '_deadly'_ boring speeches about training methods!"

Shin had a hard time to keep a straight face, while being criticised like that and was desperately searching for something original he could hurl at his comrade's head, however the only thing he could come up with in that short time was: "Oh, really?!"

"Yes, really!" His opposite countered, apparently as uncreative as the previous speaker. Both at a loss for words, they merely glared at each other and you could literally see streams of lightning arc back and forth between their eyes.

"Geez, you are both laughing stocks - we know it already, so cut it out you two!" Emi threw in, catching her two team-mates off-guard, which was easy to recognize, since their beforehand so intent and dogged faces, were replaced by a rather perplexed expression, before they both turned their backs on each other and sulked in silence.

Watching their quarrel, Sayuri couldn't help but to be reminded of how they had been themselves in that age and the memory raised a light smile on her lips. There was probably no team that wasn't at loggerheads, but for an outsider, it was probably far more comical than for an involved person… It was actually hard to have a bad mood, while being together with these hyperactive kids and listening to their trivial, but for them very important issues, but right now, she felt as if she was thrown back in time and could clearly see Naruto and Sasuke walking ahead of her in front of her inner eye. The corners of her lips sunk downwards at once and a cloud of memories started to obscure her view, keeping her from taking in anything of her surroundings. Neither the resumed babbling of the three Genin, who had again started to tease each other, though in a more playful manner this time, nor the fact that their path had left the sparse forest and was now leading them through a somewhat familiar mountain gorge, whose two sides seemed to be connected by some thick, almost horizontal growing trees and roots, got through to her. Her thoughts had again travelled to her lost team-mate and she could feel a lump building in her throat, as the feelings of desperation, helplessness and suppressed anger started to torture her mind once more.

Despite her inner turmoil, she still led the way over the tree trunks with secure steps, unconsciously matching her speed to the pace of her thoughts, which made it at times hard for the three Genin to keep up, until she perceived a sudden flash of Chakra and jerked to a sudden stop, only just catching the next root by a fortunate coincidence, even though her feet were so far at the edge that she was still in danger of slipping and falling into the depth.

Startled by their team-leader's behaviour, the three Genin came to a halt as well and enquired repeatedly what had happened, but Sayuri was concentrating too intently to take cognizance of that.

'What the hell was that just now?' She asked herself, still with her head turned into the direction, in which she had just felt the Chakra flare up, but as suddenly as it had appeared it had faded away again, just like a bolt of lightning or something, and Sayuri started to doubt the reliability of her senses. The source of the energy had been far away, she had been able to discern that much and yet the sudden, almost unreal intensity of it, had been able to hit her hard enough to even startle her out of her thoughts, which sure was no easy thing to accomplish…

And yet it was impossible. No one could set free such a bulk of Chakra in that short amount of time and have it completely extinguished in practically no time either… And to think that she, who wasn't exactly the best when it came to detecting Chakra, had been able to not only sense it, but also to make out the position and distance… Her mind must have played some queer trick on her – after all, the last weeks had demanded a lot of her: She had not only been under mental strain, but also under physical, but that was her own fault, because no one had forced her to throw herself into all these missions… and all of that only serving the vain attempt of keeping her mind and body from resting, so that she'd have no chance to fall back into that horrible state of thinking and speculating about the situation. Apparently she was even more exhausted than she had thought; there was no other way to explain what had just happened. But what on earth would lead her mind to make something like that up?

"Sayuri-sensei?" Ryuu was impatiently waving a hand in front of his team-leader's face and this time finally broke through to her. She blinked a couple of times and shook her head lightly, as if she tried to shake off the queasy feelings that had just smitten her, before she let her eyes roam over the three children that had formed a semi-circle around her and were scrutinizing her with anxious, but also curious faces, waiting for her to finally explain her behaviour.

"What's wrong – did something happen?" The small girl asked, the uneasy undercurrent in her voice fitting perfectly to the fearful glimmer in her light-grey eyes.

Not really knowing what to tell them, Sayuri moistened her lips nervously and brushed her fringe from her eyes, before she shook her head again and sighed: "It's nothing. Just thought… I thought I felt something, but I guess I was wrong… Anyway let's go, if we hurry we should cross the borders to the Fire Country in about three hours."

"You must be right; at least I on my part didn't feel anything" Shin shrugged indifferently, but Ryuu didn't waste any time to comment on that statement again.

"Yeah, and as we all know, you are the measure of all things – someone had to jump straight into your face until you took notice of him, so you should really keep it down." The brown-haired boy barked, hardly able to suppress a smile about his own cunning comment.

"And the only way you have of detecting an enemy is when he stumbles over your ego!" To his surprise it was Emi now, who had retorted to his remark, apparently feeling the need to take her not really quick-witted team-mate under her wings, or just tired of the boys' boisterous talk.

"And that coming from you of all people – you couldn't even- well… even if you…" Ryuu stumbled at a loss for words, before he abandoned the attempt completely, which was probably a good thing, since otherwise he would have embarrassed himself even more… With a triumphant expression on her face, Emi was just about to give him the finishing stroke, when Sayuri cut her off: "Be quiet now – this isn't the place to be fooling around…"

After she had been jolted from her thoughts, Sayuri had recognized the place they were passing through right now at once: they were near the remnants of the very cave which had served as an Akatsuki-hideout, not even half a year ago and in which they had distracted the Bijû out of Gaara.

The River Country - an unremarkable stretch of land, positioned between two great ninja nations: the Fire Country and the Wind Country, but having no Hidden Village, or any nameable military force itself, was known for hardly more than it's mountains, forests and rivers and not to forget the (in)famous Curry of Life. Because of its inconspicuousness it had been the perfect location for the Akatsuki to plant one of their bases in it, because they'd been able to operate completely undisturbed here – until _they_ had shown up at least… so maybe Orochimaru, who had once been an Akatsuki himself, knew about the advantages of this place and was planning to start his attack from here…

Up to now, she had refused to take the Orochimaru-theories into account, but mainly because of personal dislike and not because they were entirely devious… However now all these vague and partially adventurous hypotheses passed through her mind again and even though she still had some doubts about them, they soon gave way to one single question: 'What if this really was what they had all been afraid of and she had noticed it but had just turned her back on the threat and pretended it didn't exist?' In case Konoha would be attacked and she hadn't done a thing about it, how could she possibly carry on living, with the knowledge that she might have been able to avert the oncoming calamity?

In the last month, numerous ninjas had been perpetually striving through the vicinity of Konoha, on the lookout for even the tiniest discrepancy that might betray any hostile movement against the Village Hidden in the Leaves and now she had finally been able to find something and just dismissed it as a trick of her tired mind…

She had to play it safe, otherwise she'd be stung with remorse for the rest of her life.

While she had been thinking through all this, her pace had slowly decreased, but after that last train of thoughts she had come to a full stop. When the three Genin noticed that, you could clearly see excitement, but also anxiety take over their expressions, but they nevertheless came to a halt as well and lined up in front of her.

"What now?! Are there any enemies?" Shin asked and started flexing his non-existent muscles.

"I don't know yet…" Sayuri stated hesitantly and directed her gaze to the ground, before she turned her head up again and looked with a firm face at the three Genin in front of her. "Follow this path to the end of the wood, don't take any bends. In case you get lost, just make sure to walk east. Try to move as fast as possible until you reach the borders of the Fire Country… It should take you hardly more than two hours from here… but make sure to keep your guard up."

"What?! – No!" Shin exclaimed and Ryuu nodded in support: "We're coming with you!"

"No." The tone of her voice made sure that her decision was final, but her team nevertheless tried to move her by whining and lamenting. "It's probably nothing; I just want to make sure that I really did err… and just think about it, in case you came with me you'd end up with having to walk the entire way twice – just imagine what that would do to your feet…"

Emi's eyes widened at once; the mentioning of 'feet' painfully reminding her of the bad shape of her own limbs, however the boys weren't as easily to be shaken in their determination as she was: "So what? We're real ninjas now, too, so we'll go with you." Ryuu reiterated himself and received a low grunt by Shin and a hesitant, not really convincing nod by Emi in response to his statement.

With an uneasy expression on her face, Sayuri looked into the resolute eyes of her current students. There was no way she could take them with her. After having observed their behaviour for the last few days, she wasn't even sure if she could trust them to find the way back to the Fire Country on their own… All she wanted was to take a look around and convince herself again that she'd been wrong earlier on, but in case she hadn't, she merely planned on observing and carrying the news back to Konoha. With three overly active, overly self-assured and overly noisy Genin in tow, it would be almost impossible to keep a low profile and in case it really did come to a confrontation she would have more than enough problems with getting herself out of there alive, she couldn't take care of three children as well. Besides, she had a way more important task for them.

"No. You go back to Konoha. As I said, keep going east and take no breaks until you've reached the borders, there are enough of our ninjas, so you should be safe once you're there." She stated, still every once in a while glancing to the side, while her students looked rather unhappy about her unchanged orders. "I'll catch up to you as soon as possible, however I think it'll take at least three or four hours – but in case I still haven't returned by then, inform the guard posts about everything and send them north into the direction of Ame-Gakure."

"But nothing is going to happen to you, right?" Emi asked hesitantly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

"I don't think so – I'm more concerned about you three: Try to keep those two squabblers from ripping each others head off, okay? – and try to keep your volume down. Set off now." She ordered them and watched them nod grimly, before they turned around and started to run as quickly as their feet would allow.

As soon as they were out of sight, Sayuri closed her eyes and filled her lungs with the fresh winter air, before she took off into the direction she had sensed the Chakra in. She decided that it was safe to cover the first half of the distance, with as much speed as possible, after that, she'd have to slow down and keep her eyes open. Once she had reached the spot where she had been as she had sensed the flash of energy, she jumped over the tree trunks and leaped up the northern rock face instead of carrying on running through the gorge. With a queasy feeling, the violet-haired girl ran across a vast, open plane, which was hardly vegetated by any plants that reached over ankle-height and therefore didn't provide any cover. She just hoped that the rest of her journey would lead her through better sheltered areas.

The nearer she came towards the region, she suspected the enemy or whatever it was to be in, the tenser she became, even though she was still sure that she was just tracking down a figment of her imagination. She decreased her pace and was careful not to make any noise, while she walked over the luckily slightly muddy forest floor, but it was covered with some tiny sticks, pine cones and acorns, so she nevertheless had to keep her guard up.

She had thought a lot about Orochimaru on her way here and had tried to make sense of her discovery in a rational manner, which had made her come up with a rather alarming theory. When Orochimaru had attacked Konoha during the Chunin exams, three years ago, he had made some of his subordinates summon a giant snake, so maybe the huge amount of Chakra she had felt hadn't come from a single person, but from numerous shinobi that were preparing something – not necessarily a giant snake, but some kind of weapon for sure… She had probably been unable to make out the different sources of Chakra, because it's been too far away and because they have concentrated on one single task… In any case she had to be all the more careful, whether she believed it to be just her imagination or not…

She should have reached the vague position by now, but she still couldn't feel the presence of a single living being. She had known it. It had been her fantasy all along… She felt a little foolish now, it was just so like her to be unable to discern between the real world and the world inside her head… And to think that she had scared the three children like that… She would just carry on her search, until she reached the end of the forest, which wasn't really far away from where she was now and then turn straight back. Hopefully, she'd reach the border to the Fire Country before her self-set time-limit was over, otherwise things would get really embarrassing for her…

As she finally interrupted her train of thoughts, she noticed something weird about the entire atmosphere. There wasn't a single sound, other than the noise of splashing water and the faint cracking of some sticks underneath her soles, since she had given up on being too careful about her steps. Even for winter, the complete lack of any animal sounds was very unusual…

Once again smitten by an uneasy feeling, Sayuri stepped towards the edge of the wood, where the source of the dabbling noise came from and stared at a narrow waterfall which flowed into a small natural basin, positioned in the centre of a wide almost oval-shaped field, covered with dried leaves, stones and dead grass only, lying at the foot of a bare hill, until her attention drifted to something else and her eyes widened in shock at the sight that was revealed to her.

…

…


	40. Sober Reunion

**40.**** Sober Reunion**

Before she could do anything about it, a shocked and not exactly quiet gasp escaped Sayuri's lips and her fingers tightened around a piece of bark that was sticking out from a tree right beside her and broke it off, which again made a not really inconspicuous sound. She hardly took notice of any of that, though. She kept standing in the pale shadows of the thinned-out line of trees, as rigid as a pillar of salt, her lips slightly parted in complete disbelief.

A gale of cutting north wind ruffled her fringe into her face and made strands of her long, violet hair dance before her eyes. At other times that would have probably bothered her, but right now she was hardly aware of it. A haunted expression shadowed her misty blue eyes, while the rest of her face remained unmoved, barely giving anything away of the turmoil that raged within her head. However the rigidity seemed to be limited to her face only, since her feet had slowly started moving forwards, thwarting her plans of staying hidden, even though she didn't realize it, until the cold, but radiant white light of the late afternoon sun made her pupils contract and caused her to narrow her eyes reflexively. After having walked through the shadows for such a long time, she needed some time to get re-accustomed to the sunlight, however the change in brightness brought her back down to earth and made her aware of the dangerous situation she was in right now, so she came to a stop again, even though she was sure that her previous behaviour had already given away her presence anyway.

If this was really just a trick of her mind, than she should really consider checking herself into a psychiatric institution… This was just too unreal to be true…

With a blank, almost aghast expression, she stared into the direction of the waterfall and let her eyes wander up and down the man standing next to it. There was no mistaking it; this wasn't a mirage or a hallucination, but the very solid and concrete figure of her former team-mate.

She scrutinized the profile of his face thoroughly and noticed that he was standing with closed eyes in front of the small lake, his head slightly tilted upwards into the direction of the white winter sun, which bathed his face in a cold light, underlining the paleness of his skin and giving him an almost lifeless, ghostly appearance.

The longer she stared at him, the more confused she became and a sudden surge of anger flared up inside of her, so that she was soon so blinded with a rage, she had never felt before, that she hardly took in anything other than the vague shape of the man that had betrayed them yet another time. The man, because of whom the entire Fire Country was in uproar and confusion and he was just a day's march away from Konoha, standing around placidly, while he let the sun tan him.

Even though it's not a nice thing to think, she had all the time secretly hoped that he hadn't abandoned them on his own free will; that something had happened to make him leave – now she had the proof that she'd been mistaken, otherwise he wouldn't be here now. How could they have all been so wrong about him? How come he was always able to deceive them and have them put their trust in him again? He had never done anything to earn it and yet they had literally thrown it at him, more generously than they could afford, but had never received anything in return.

Her hands started shaking with fury and chagrin, so she clenched them tightly and forced herself to take a deep breath in. She couldn't afford being distracted by her emotions, when she stood in front of Uchiha Sasuke, who was no longer there to safe her from danger, but was now a potential threat to her himself.

After she had recollected herself as best as was possible under the present circumstances, she took another step forward, her eyes still fixated on his profile and especially the relaxed and tranquil expression on his face, which made her blood boil even more. She was now hardly four metres away from him and yet he hadn't even shown the slightest inclination to acknowledge her presence. He still stood there with closed eyes, savouring the warming sunbeams, while the wind tousled his pitch black hair, which formed a great contrast to his almost translucent seeming skin.

"Why?" She asked as she finally came to a halt, her voice sounding lower and shakier than she would have liked.

She watched how the Uchiha slowly cast his eyes open, but still didn't look into her direction. That was the only movement he made and while Sayuri still waited for an explanation, or any other reaction from him, she perceived how her whole body had again begun to shake with fury, so she once again forced herself to take a deep breath, before she reiterated her question, but this time in a steadier voice: "Why? How could you do that to us?"

He closed his eyes pensively for a couple of seconds and then shot a side-glance into her direction without moving his head while doing so.

"You should leave." He said in a low voice and yet it didn't really sound like a threat, but rather like a request or an advice.

She shot a confused glance into his direction, carefully weighing his every word and trying to make sense of them. However that wasn't exactly easy, given that her mind was still clouded by all the mixed emotions she was feeling right now, above all anger and confusion. Now that his eyes were open though, she realized that he didn't look relaxed and calm anymore, but rather exhausted and weary. She had probably mistaken his appearance from the very start and now had to reconsider the hasty conclusions she had made, mainly led by rage and disappointment.

She scrutinized him again, very carefully and objective this time and first realized that he was wearing different clothes. He was dressed in a long, dark cloak, which concealed his body for the most part, but the strong wind blew it aside occasionally and revealed the dark blue, not yet black, sleeveless training-suit he was wearing underneath it. Again, a violet cord was bound around his waist, in which he had probably tucked his Kusanagi, even though she couldn't see that just now. His upper garments were low cut and exposed most of his chest and the thick bandages that were tied around it and even reached up to his right shoulder. Besides that, his entire skin seemed to be covered with small scratches and grazes, even though most of them seemed to have healed by now.

His poor condition inclined that something must have happened, something bad… maybe he had been forced to leave after all, but how would his words correspond to that? If he really had been kidnapped or something; shouldn't he be glad to see her then? – This was utterly absurd. Nothing of that would explain why he was standing here; there were neither signs of a fight on his clothes nor in the area, and the wounds on his body were without a doubt at least a couple of days, if not weeks old, he hadn't been in any immediate jeopardy before she had come here, so just what was he doing here?

"I'll say it just one more time: Leave." His eyes hardened as he said that and this time his voice had a bit more of an edge to it. Sayuri flinched slightly after his words, but still made no move to leave. Her eyes remained firmly focused on his profile, still trying to read what he was thinking, but it was impossible; even though his face wasn't as cold and emotionless as it usually was, she was still unable to make sense of his mimic and gesture.

Apparently unhappy that she still hadn't taken his warning seriously and wasn't obeying his orders, he closed his eyes again and heaved a weary sigh. Still with his eyes closed, he gripped to his back and pulled his katana out of its sheath, swinging it to the side, as if he meant to shake something off of it. Then he spun it around the back of his hand, the beaming sunlight that fell on it dazzling his opponent's eyes, before he pointed the tip of the sharp blade at the girl to his side.

She blinked a little startled and narrowed her eyes to shield them from the incident light, while she scrutinized his posture and you could literally see all colour being drained from her face, as everything finally started to fall into place. So that's what he had meant: Leave or I'll kill you. – She knew that he was actually averted to killing, if it couldn't be helped. Apparently now it couldn't. But why had he waited so long? He could have killed them numerous times while he'd still been in Konoha, but he hadn't, so what had changed?

It didn't matter now. He was here and he intended to fight her – to the death if that's what it meant… The man she had even believed to have feelings for was now standing in front of her and wanted to kill her. As if the last months had never happened at all. As if they were still standing in the crater, where one of Orochimaru's hideouts had once been. They had thought he had changed, but he had deceived them all – he was still the same callous, self-absorbed, vicious, heartless, power-hungry block of ice he had always been.

Another wave of anger suddenly washed over her and made her forget about all reason.

Made her forget about the fact that an encounter with him would probably end deadly for her.

Made her forget, that if she died, no one would be there to carry the news back to the village.

And above all, made her forget about every bit of exhaustion or uncertainty, she had felt up to now. Before she even realized it, she had already raised a kunai and hunched down in a fighting position. Not reacting to his deadly glare with intimidation, as she usually would have done, but glaring at him herself, even though she hardly looked threatening, but rather like a furious kitten, ready to launch herself at a ferocious tiger.

While she waited for him to make his move, every muscle in her body was tensed and her knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip around her raised dagger, which pointed shakily into the Uchiha's direction. That one still didn't move and just kept shooting menacing glares at the girl next to him; his eyes as black as coals, ready to burst into flames. It almost seemed as if he was still trying to scare her off. That wouldn't work though, she had made her decision – even if she wanted to, she couldn't turn back now, blind rage had taken over her mind and body and was now probably leading her into disaster.

Realizing that he wouldn't make the first step, she tightened her grip around her kunai even harder, not even noticing how her cramped fingers started to hurt, before she ran towards him and threw a couple of shuriken, she had pulled out of her bag with her free hand, at the still immobile figure of her opponent.

She merely perceived another flash of light and a metallic sound and a second later she noticed that her shuriken were lying on the ground at the feet of the raven-haired man while nothing about his posture seemed to have changed. She pressed her lips together in a tight line, forcing herself to get a grip on herself and regain control of her emotions, otherwise she was already as good as dead.

Hardly a metre separated the violet-haired girl from the Uchiha-heir now, so she bent her body to the side, trying to stay as far away from his katana as was possible, before she tried to stab him with her kunai. He used his Kusanagi to fend off her attack and its sharp blade cut through the metal of her dagger like a warm knife through butter.

She had known this would happen; after all, she had seen him fight numerous of times and she wouldn't make the mistake to underestimate him – what she actually counted on, was that his huge ego would lead him to underestimate her; that was probably the only chance she had of even standing five minutes through this fight… and considering that he hadn't activated his Sharingan yet and wasn't exactly standing in a defensive stance, gave her hope that she had been right about him.

The purpose behind her fruitless attack had been to get closer to him; while she had been running towards him, she had already started to gather chakra in her right hand, intending to use it as a chakra-scalpel, but apparently he had seen through her. Because as her out-stretched hand was hardly more than a centimetre away from his chest, she noticed how he gripped for her wrist and kept her hand in place, away from his body.

He hadn't seen through her after all. She stretched her fingers as far down as possible and managed to touch the back of his hand with the tips of her fingers and noticed how his grip started to loosen, as she severed the nerve tracks in his hand. She took the opportunity at once and tried to touch as much of his skin as possible, intending to do as much damage as she could, but she was barely able to paralyze his left arm from the shoulder downwards, when she felt how the handle of his katana collided painfully hard with her sleeve and caused her to stumble backwards and fall over.

She heard a guttural snarl built in his throat, as he realized what she had done to him and as she looked up, she stared into a pair of blood-red Sharingan.

She had to swallow hard, finally starting to feel a bit of the intimidation she should have felt long before. There went her opportunity; she had done far less damage than she had meant to and now he wouldn't make the mistake to take her lightly again. Judging from the fierce look on his face, he would want to get this over with as fast as possible. Things were turning out bad. Even with one paralysed arm, she was still no match for him and now that she had gotten him nice and angry, her chances were even slimmer than before, the only hope she had, was that his older injuries were far worse than they looked and affected his movements enough for her to hit him again.

She needed a strategy –preferably a good one, otherwise it was over. It would be hard to get close enough to him again to use her Medical-Ninjutsu on him and the mere thought of opposing his Sharingan with her simple Gen-Jutsus was plainly ridiculous. The only thing left for her was Tai-Jutsu but unfortunately that wasn't too promising either; her technique was actually quite good and she was very quick and nimble, her problem was that her physical strength left much to be desired and was far from being a match for his… But if she played her cards right, she could maybe break through his defences and then use her Medical-Jutsu after all…

Before she was able to come up with any promising strategy, Sasuke appeared right next to her and kicked into her side, sending her flying against one of the rocks that bounded the small basin. As his foot crashed into her rips, she could hear an alarming cracking noise and was unable to breathe, but after she collided with the edgy rock fragments, even the last bit of air was squashed out of her lungs. She rolled on her back, lengthened her neck and pinched her shoulder blades together, trying to expand her lungs as best as possible, while a gasping noise escaped her throat.

With slow, deliberate steps, Sasuke approached the girl, who was still struggling for air and came to a halt, as his feet were on one height with her squirming and writhing body. With an unreadable expression, he stared down into her eyes while her breathing was slowly getting steadier again, but was still far from being back to its normal frequency. She coughed miserably, perceiving that his eyes were still bluntly, almost intently staring into hers, so she seized the chance of his apparent distraction to ram her knee into his ankle. A sharp pain ran through her rips, but she nevertheless put as much force into the kick as she could, but missed him, as he jumped up in time to avoid her hit. At the same moment, his feet reached the ground again, he rammed his katana into the stomach of the girl in front of him. No trace of regret visible on his blank features. However right after the blade of his Kusanagi had punctured her flesh, her body dissolved and turned into a radiant cloud of butterflies, which enclosed the Uchiha at once.

Sayuri had hidden behind some rocks, just a couple of metres away from the scene and observed how the Uchiha vanished in the swarm of insects, hoping that she could buy herself some time to heal herself, given that Sasuke wasn't able to perform any seals, now that one of his arms was paralysed and therefore had to fend off all the butterflies one by one.

As she was done with healing herself, she pushed her upper body up, grinding her teeth, since her side was still hurting when she moved in the wrong way, before she pulled out a couple of kunais and hurled them into the blurred jumble of wildly flapping wings.

She couldn't tell for sure, but she could have sworn that she'd heard a low groan, once her daggers had penetrated into the whirl of butterflies, so she struggled to her feet and started walking towards the spot she assumed her opponent to be, but before she had even taken a single step forward, she was blinded by a brilliant white-blue light, which bathed the entire region in an eerie, almost surreal glow.

As soon as the light faded again, Sayuri spotted the now shady silhouette of her former team-mate, standing in a pile of dead butterflies.

Damn. He didn't need any seals for his Chidori. Good for her that she had noticed that before he could surprise her with it…

A small runlet of blood was running down his cheek, but except for that, her kunais seemed to have missed him. Just another insignificant wound that added to his anger - things seemed to get worse and worse each passing second…

This time he didn't wait for his former team-mate to make the first move, but dashed towards her at once. His katana was back in its sheath, but his raised fist looked more threatening than many weapons did. Sayuri crouched down a little, trying to stand more stable, before she raised her arms up to cover her face, since the rocks, which surrounded the basin and happened to be right in her back and somehow at her sides too, made it hard to get out of the way in time. His fist collided with her left forearm, causing her to jerk it to the side, as a sharp pain ran up her entire arm.

Jumping to the side, she tried to get away from those nasty, obstructing rocks, but the Uchiha was already after her, using the moment of her neglected cover to launch another blow at her, again aiming for her face. Her head flipped from one side to the other as she tried to dodge his every hit. Even though he was only able to use one of his arms, she still had a hard time to avoid his clenched fists and the first bruises started to cover her forearms and cheeks, while merely a single one of her counter-attacks had been able to hit the mark.

Trying to use all the little advantages she had, Sayuri threw one smoke bomb after the next, to keep him blind and secure herself from his Sharingan, but still he not only managed to evade most of her attacks, but also harmed her furthermore. And yet, despite her poor performance, she couldn't help but to feel that he was holding back; that he still wasn't taking her seriously. This whole fight reminded her a lot of the rare occasions, when they had sparred together for training purposes: they were trying to hurt each other and yet there wasn't anything life-threatening to this fight - not yet at least…

They kept on exchanging blow after blow for several time, slashing and throwing weapons around, until they had both used up their entire equipment, while thick ominous clouds darkened the sky, casting dim shadows over the battlefield and the air got palpably colder as time advanced and the sun ceased to come out from behind the towering banks of clouds.

More and more blood started drenching their clothes and ran over their skin, even though mainly as a consequence of minor, but numerous injuries.

Sayuri was panting heavily and her breathing came in almost fitful spasms, but at least her opponent's breathing wasn't anywhere near its normal frequency either. Her limbs grew heavy, feeling as if they were made of lead and she noticed how it became harder for her to concentrate, so she dodged another attack by the dark-haired man and leaped backwards, trying to buy herself some time by talking to him.

"What's the matter _Sasuke_?" She almost spat out his name, putting all the anger and scorn into her words, she hadn't been able to give vent to with her fists yet. "Never knew you were one to play with your enemies…"

"Kukuku…" He chuckled, even though there was no real trace of amusement in his voice. "Are you in a hurry to die, Sayuri-_chan_?" He almost purred the suffix, she had deliberately omitted after his name; the corners of his mouth lifting up in a mocking sneer as he perceived how his opponent almost bid off her bottom lip in anger.

Her breathing still hadn't returned to its normal rhythm or was anywhere close to it, but she nevertheless clenched her fists and ran towards the Uchiha again. He waited until she had almost reached him and then jumped over her, doing a quick somersault in the air, while his paralyzed right arm fluttered loosely after him.

As he was still head down, in the air right above her, Sayuri seized the chance at once to jump up and grab for his benumbed arm to pull him downwards. The moment he was at the right height, she stroke out and rammed her fist against his throat, putting all her weight into the punch to increase its effectiveness.

A strange crushing sound was heard, so she pulled her fist back and watched her opponent fall to the ground. However before he did, he stretched out his operative arm and caught himself before he could hit the rocky ground, landing in a one-armed handstand. After that, he thrust his leg forwards and kicked straight into Sayuri's face. With his one arm, he pushed himself up from the ground and landed on his feet again, while he watched how his former team-mate was thrown backwards from the impact with his foot. He led his hand to his throat, closing it around the place she had hit, to block out the pain, while he was trying to steady his breathing, which was even harder than before, since his trachea had suffered badly from her blow.

He wiped away the blood that had started dripping down his nose and narrowed his eyes, as he heard a pained wail, followed by some retching cough and convulsive panting.

Sayuri was lying curled up on her side, her small hands clutching her face tightly, as if they meant to keep it from crumbling apart, while flows of crimson liquor started gushing out from between her cramped fingers. She thought she would suffocate, until she concentrated on breathing through her mouth only, fearing that her nose was broken, since it was entirely occluded by blood and sent a painful throbbing through every single bone in her face, but fortunately she soon found out that it was more or less okay – if you didn't consider pain as a benchmark at least…

Still lying on her side, she supported herself with one arm and tried to push herself up, but as soon as she sat up straight, a sable curtain started to obscure her view, so she pressed her watery eyes shut and tried to fight the feeling of dizziness and vertigo that was spreading out in her head and made it feel heavy and yet weightless all the same.

With slow steps Sasuke walked towards her and bent down right in front of the badly injured girl, heaving her up by wrapping his hand around her throat and slamming her limp body against the thick tree trunk behind her. He lifted her upwards, until her face was on one height with his and started adding to the pressure on her throat.

Sayuri's eyes popped open, as her airways constricted and the oxygen became scarcer. Even then, she still tried to touch the ground with her toes, but they only swayed loosely through the air, until she was able to touch a small root with the tip of her foot and rested it on it. Not that it would help her… She led her hands to his and tried to loosen his grip, clawing her nails deep into his skin, but failed in making him let go of her.

A narrow ray of light broke through the low, black clouds and illuminated the two shinobi that had apparently reached the final phase of their fight.

As Sasuke was standing there, strangling his former team-mate, a new feeling overcame him, all his senses started to sharpen in a peculiar way and he was exceedingly aware of everything happening. As if he was in some kind of frenzy-like state…

He noticed how the wind had turned and blew the salty and a little rusty smell of her fresh blood right into his face.

The skin on his hand, he had enclosed around her slender neck, was pricking as if numerous tiny needles were piercing it and a new sensation overcame him, thrilling and disturbing likewise, as he realized that he could probably break her neck with a tiny flick of his fingers.

His gaze travelled over her face – crimson red against snow white – but the longer he held on to his grip, the more her skin colour adjusted to the scarlet liquor that was covering it.

And then there were her eyes. Her misty blue eyes, she was fighting to keep open, formed a sharp contrast to everything else in the entire scene. It seemed as if her eyes took up the little light the sun was casting on them and reflected it with manifold intensity, making them appear as if they were glowing on their own. All other colours and forms became blurry and livid, as if covered by a thin veil, until there was nothing else but the deep blue pools that were her eyes, casting a spell over him. It was impossible for him to avert his gaze from her, until her glare, she had, even despite the indescribable pain she was in, been trying so hard to keep fixed on him, faded and became unfocused.

Her body started twitching, electric currents running through her nerve tracks, as no more oxygen reached her brain. One of her arms sunk down and dangled loosely at her side, while she had bored the nails of the other one so deep into his flesh that they remained stuck in it. Her lids started fluttering down, finally winning the fight over her watery, bloodshot eyes that were now staring at some distant place, no one but her was able to see.

Sasuke blinked confusedly, as the spell started to fade. Her eyes were almost shut now, but her lids were still twitching slightly. She hadn't given up yet.

He loosened his grip a little, not yet willing to let her close her eyes forever and stared at her blood-covered face that was slowly taking on its former ashen complexion again, while her chapped, swollen lips were likewise drained of all colour and trembled as she tried to suck in more air than her damaged windpipe would allow. His hand still rested on her delicate neck, without exerting more pressure to it than it took to keep her from sinking down. He lightly trailed his thumb over her collarbone and perceived how her entire body shook violently, from every breath she forced into her lungs. All the time his eyes remained focussed on her face, waiting for her to open her lids again.

What was it that made him want that so much?

Was it just curiosity? – Did he want to see if her eyes were still glowing, now that the sun was again obscured by clouds? Was it because of the strange, almost spell-like attraction they had on him – the weird feeling that had so suddenly overcome him? Or was it because it had finally made him feel something? – Something he couldn't quite identify…

…

… Feelings…

A change to the emptiness and meaninglessness that had governed his life lately. Something he had always tried to break off with, only to figure out that it was far from being a desirable state of mind when it had almost been too late.

Her body had stopped shaking for the most part now, but her breathing still came in rapid, fitful bursts from her agape mouth and was interrupted by occasional coughing fits when she sucked in the air too greedily. Her head had grown so heavy that she was unable to keep it from tilting forwards, even though it made breathing even more arduous for her.

As she had finally recollected herself as best as was possible considering her current condition, she raised her head up again and leaned it against the tree trunk behind her, to keep it from dropping forwards again.

Her eyes were still slightly unfocused, but she met Sasuke's gaze at once, as she found him staring at her. She looked into his deep black eyes that seemed to bore into hers, seeing far beyond the limits of flesh and bone. The intense eye-contact caused a cold shiver to run down her spine, so she extended the range of her vision, taking in his bloody and exhausted and yet somehow churning and expectant face.

She flinched, as she felt how he let his hand move upwards again, almost reaching the sore parts of skin that were adorned by the dark marks, his fingers had left on it.

Her breathing accelerated.

Eyes widening in fear.

Was he about to pick up from where he left off?

Her chest heaved rapidly up and down.

Heart beating so violently that her ears throbbed with each pulse of blood.

Her thoughts were racing and ricocheting around her mind.

This was it. Her end.

His hand still moved upwards. His fingers falling into the places they had left their imprints on before.

A cold breeze came up, sweeping through her dark hair and tossing it into her face, highlighting the ghostly paleness of her battered skin, making her seem even more fragile and vulnerable than usual.

She pressed her body against the tree trunk behind her, oblivious of the branches and twigs that bored into her back. All that mattered was to get away from him.

She narrowed her eyes and fixed them on his again, realizing that his face was now clouded by a blank and almost pensive expression, his eyes slightly unfocused.

He was distracted.

Maybe it wasn't over just yet.

She took a deep breath. Mobilizing the little strength she still had left, before she clenched her fists tightly and rammed her knee into his crotch.

His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and he let out a choked gasp, letting go of the girl at once, who hence sunk down and landed on the ground right at his feet. Sayuri observed what her low-blow had done to him. A cheap trick, admittedly, but the prospect of death made one insensible to things like social conventions…

He was in a lot of pain, his contorted features and his crouched posture gave that away quite well. She could take the chance to run, however she doubted that she'd be able to walk even a couple of metres in her condition, before he caught up to her – really angry this time, so running was not an option.

Another wave of panic rolled over her. Froze her into place, but then her eyes fell on one of the kunais, she had thrown at him in the course of their fight, lying right next to her. She put all her strength into overcoming the mental paralysis, as well as the physical exhaustion and was able to enclose her shaking fingers around the small dagger. With her free hand, she pushed herself up from the ground, hardly able to keep on her feet, so she didn't really try, but stumbled with raised kunai towards her opponent, who stood hardly more than a metre in front of her, literally falling against him, while ramming her weapon into his right shoulder.

They both fell to the ground, Sayuri landing on top of Sasuke and forcing her kunai even deeper into his shoulder, practically pinning him to the ground, before she let her head drop forwards and rested her forehead on his chest, taking a couple of deep breaths and pressing her eyes together, to fight the dizziness that swamped over her.

Except for the agonized gasp, the Uchiha had let out, once they'd fallen to the ground, he remained completely still and unmoving. If it wasn't for his wheezing breathing noises and the heavy heaving of his chest, you wouldn't be able to tell whether he was dead or alive.

After her breathing had steadied considerably, Sayuri tightened the grip of her cramped fingers on the kunai and pulled it out of his shoulder, causing the raven-haired man to suck in a sharp breath through his clenched teeth. She then laid a flat hand on Sasuke's bandaged chest, so that she could push herself upwards and looked into his face, completely ignoring the pained hiss, coming from the raven-haired man and held the kunai to his throat, pushing it firmly enough against it, to cause a small cut to open where it touched his skin.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw how he tried to move his arm, however all he managed was to wiggle his fingers a little - she'd been able to hit him right where she had meant to, paralyzing his other arm as well.

Her mouth opened and fell shut again. A tiny drop of blood trickled from her parted lips and landed on his collarbone, running down his chest until it reached his already soaked bandages, which were covering his torso and mingled with his own blood. Sayuri observed how the only just darker spot, blended with the rest of the crimson liquor until it was imperceptible, before she turned to look into the Uchiha's eyes again. His face had taken on its usual unreadable expression again, if it wasn't for all the wounds and bruises, covering his entire body you wouldn't even know that he was in pain.

With an uneasy expression on her face, Sayuri opened her mouth again, but nothing more than a hoarse croak parted her lips, so she tried to clear her throat, even though it felt as if someone pulled barbed wire up her windpipe, and tried speaking again.

"…Why…?" Her voice was hardly more than a husky and yet high-pitched rasp, barely able to drown out the sound of the flowing waterfall, she had completely forgotten about up to now. Sasuke didn't show any sign that he had understood her; his coal black eyes just remained fixed on her, but he didn't utter a single syllable, so she repeated her question again, a saddened undercurrent clearly audible in her weak voice: "Why did you do it?"

Her voice failed at the end of her question and tears started filling her eyes again, liquefying the dried blood on her cheeks as they came in contact with it and burning in her open wounds like acid.

He was still eyeing her pensively, before he closed his eyes for a couple of seconds and inhaled deeply: "You won – aren't you supposed to kill me now?"

Sayuri gasped in shock – this sure wasn't what she had expected. He was probably mocking her – thinking that she wouldn't be able to do it anyway, but his face didn't really look like that… This wasn't his usual haughty and arrogant expression…

He looked…

…sad?

Maybe not. It was really hard to tell. Had she ever seen him sad before?

Worried? – Yes.

Angry? – Definitely.

But sad? She knew that he must have been sad, after everything that had happened, there was no way around it and he had been all alone for such a long time… and yet he had never shown any signs of distress or sorrow, but had kept all his emotions locked up inside of himself, invisible to anyone but him.

She scrutinized his features carefully, noticing how he raised an eyebrow in response to her puzzled stare. A challenge? – Was he teasing her after all?

"I will… but first… tell me why?" She stated, in what she wanted to be a steady voice, however she still sounded as if she was speaking through some kind of filter, making her voice sound rather ridiculous.

"I'm a threat to the village. It would be unwise to keep me alive." This wasn't what she had meant and she was sure that Sasuke knew that as well, so why was he avoiding answering her question? His eyes were still boring into hers, giving the impression that he really meant what he had said, that he really did want her to kill him.

This wasn't right. This didn't fit to the image she had of him at all. He wouldn't just give up like that; he was a fighter, an avenger as he had put it. He's had an ambition, hadn't he?

"I don't understand…" She choked out; relieving his chest a bit of the pressure her weight was putting on it, but not taking the kunai from his throat and staring intently into his face, searching for even the tiniest motion that might give away the actual meaning behind his words.

"What about your brother?" She asked after receiving no answer from the raven-haired man, who had closed his eyes again, this time avoiding her poignant stare.

Another sharp breeze of the icy evening air, washed over them, cooling their aching limbs and becoming one with the dreary sigh, the Uchiha heaved before he raised his voice in a quiet and yet clearly audible tone, not bothering to open his eyes while doing so.

"My brother is no longer a concern of mine."

"Huh?" A perplexed expression rose on Sayuri's face and she erected herself a bit more, trying to get a better view of her former team-mate, while she led her kunai away from his throat. Sayuri went through his sentence over and over again and still wasn't able to make sense of it, but then she didn't get much time to think about it, because his following words startled her out of her ruminations.

"What are you waiting for?" His words were hardly more than a whisper, she wasn't even sure if she had heard him right, until something occurred to her that more or less explained everything that had happened this day.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, a wry smile of disbelieve forming on her bruised lips. Once again tears started streaming down her face, falling onto the sharp blade of the dagger she was holding insecurely in her trembling hand. Slowly opening her eyes, she directed a musing glance at her kunai and tightened her grip around its handle.

"Tze…" She shook her head again. "And you called me pathetic…" Her voice trailed off at the end of the sentence and a pitiful sob escaped her lips as she raised up the kunai and stabbed the man, she's had feelings for all along.

…

…


	41. Aftermath

**41.**** Aftermath**

Heavy dark grey clouds were covering the sky, not allowing any light to break through them and shine down on the two people that were lying on the bare ground at the edge of a sparse forest, right in front of a small lake a narrow waterfall was flowing into. The shrill twittering of birds had resumed filling the air, even though it was mostly drowned out by the noise of the falling water and the whooshing of the wind.

With eyes wide and full of horror, Sayuri stared down at her trembling hands that were still closed around the kunai, which was now stained with the blood of her former friend.

Her mouth hung open in disbelief, her paralyzed features made clear that she still hadn't realized what had just happened.

She raised her shaking fists in front of her face and opened them, staring almost accusingly at the bloody dagger that was resting in her bare palms.

What had she done?

She moved her hands to the side, letting the kunai drop down between them, as if it was a thing of greatest disgust; something that would corrode her skin if she held on to it any longer.

Her gaze was still fixed on her trembling hands, her sore skin, her bloody fingers, but then it drifted to the gap between them and she could see the lifeless face of her former team-mate.

His ashen complexion was framed by some dishevelled strands of his pitch black hair that fell loosely into his ghostly face. His mouth was slightly agape and a small runlet of blood came flowing out of it, dripping down his chin and landing with a quiet splat in the small hollow between his collarbones. He looked so frail and weak… just the blood covering his entire face bothered the peaceful countenance he was emitting and gave him an almost haunted appearance.

Tears were still running down her cheeks, leaving burning tracks on her skin and a pitiful sob escaped her throat, so she covered her mouth, hoping she could stop the next one from freeing itself against her will. The sound of her weeping made her just all the more aware of everything around her and finally the realization of what had just happened hit her.

She had killed him.

He was dead and it was her fault.

She had killed a person that was despite everything that had happened between them, very important to her. What did that say about her? Didn't that put her on an even lower level than most ordinary cold-blooded killer?

She led one hand away from her mouth and hesitantly poked a finger at the side of his face. It was alarmingly cold; most of his body heat had leaked out already, she was even sure that she could see his skin turn bluer and bluer each passing second.

A sharp breeze blew away the white puffs that parted her lips and nostrils every time she exhaled. There were no puffs coming from his mouth. He had stopped breathing already.

With an aghast expression, she cupped a hand around his cheek, rubbing it slightly to keep his skin from cooling out completely, maybe even secretly hoping that he would just wake up; all the time unaware of the words, which left her lips like a silent mantra.

"_What have I done… what have I done… what have I done…"_

She let her hand wander from his cheek to his neck, searching for a pulse, which was pretty hard because of her shaking fingers, but finding none.

Yet another choked sob left her throat, so she bit on her lower lip, trying to fight the urge to check his heartbeat too, but doing it anyway.

She leaned her head down and placed it on his chest, focussing intently on drowning out all other sounds, while she searched for even the slightest sound that might indicate that his heart was still functioning to some extend.

And there it was. An almost inaudible and very weak_ bu-bum… bu-bum…._

It was very faint and irregular but it was there. He wasn't dead yet – not entirely at least. She must have missed his vital point – otherwise he would be stone dead by now.

Seems like her inability to shut off her emotions, had saved him - if she hadn't been so churned up she wouldn't have missed, that's for sure.

A sudden surge of relief washed through the violet-haired kunoichi, but was soon replaced by another wave of worry, as she looked at his nevertheless fatal injury.

Gladly she had stabbed him point-blank, otherwise he would have lost far more blood than he already had. Her kunai went deep into his stomach, not too deep though, but at least it clogged the wound and kept more blood from flowing out.

She had done a lot of damage, it would be almost impossible to heal him with the little chakra she still had left, but she would try it nevertheless, maybe she could at least stabilize him, until the support team came, even though judging from the orders she had given her team, no one would show up here within the next two or three hours.

She placed her hands on his injury, so that the handle of the kunai stood out of the small triangle that formed where the thumbs and forefingers of her two hands met. She couldn't pull it out just yet, first she would have to heal the adjacent regions and get his bleeding under control and then pull it out millimetre by millimetre, otherwise she could leave it right away…

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath in and started concentrating her healing-chakra into her palms. Her hands were glowing with a pale greenish light that spread over Sasuke's abdominal region, but it was too weak yet; he would be long dead before she was able to heal his wounds if she carried on like this.

She pushed herself to her limits, gathering all the chakra she still had left and channelling it through her outstretched fingers.

Black dots started dancing before her eyes and a dark veil narrowed her sight, making it arduous to merely keep her eyes open, let alone hold her head straight. Her brain felt weightless, as if it was swimming in her skull and was close to drowning, but she nevertheless carried on healing him.

Why did she do it?

He was a Nuke-nin after all – a double traitor and murderer. So why was she trying so hard to keep him alive? Didn't he just try to kill her? – that should be reason enough to let him die here… he wouldn't have acted any different either – or would he? She wasn't that sure about it – the outcome of their fight militated against it.

He was Uchiha Sasuke after all, if he had really wanted to, he could have killed her within the first few seconds of their battle, so how come she was now sitting here while he was lying, more dead than alive, underneath her?

He hadn't taken her serious, she had known that all along; he had neither used his Chidori on her, nor had he attacked her with his katana – admittedly he had aimed it at her Cho-bunshin and slashed through it without hesitation, but because of his Sharingan he must have known that it wasn't really her, so that didn't really count… and he hadn't used a single one of his Gen-Jutsus on her either… how come he hadn't? What did all of this mean? And why had he pulled back from killing her, when he still had the chance to?

Despite all that, she shouldn't do this – after all he had literally begged her to kill him…

He had been acting weirdly the entire time – satisfying her curiosity alone should be reason enough to keep him alive, but was that really what motivated her right now? Probably not. Curiosity could never lead her to feeling the way she did right now, there was far more to it, she just didn't really know what it was yet…

…

…

The light started to fade.

There was a blurry haze. Lucent still, but getting more opaque as time went by. Almost like a deep black sea, manifesting itself as his senses started to fade. It felt as if he was drowning, but then he didn't really feel anything anymore, so it was hard to tell.

The darkness engulfed him and he began to acquire a liking for this unreal state of mind. Began to like the feeling of merely floating through space, detached from everything that used to limit him in his earthly existence.

Everything that used to be fundamental had no weight at this place. There was no such thing as time. No up and down. No left and right. Nothing here seemed to be subjected to the laws of physics and he himself was no longer a slave to his own needs. It seemed as if his being was reduced to a merely spiritual essence, ridded of everything you could sum up as human limitations.

No feelings.

No emotions.

No strength.

No weakness.

No pain.

No pleasure.

Nothing but nothingness itself.

If it wasn't for the little remnant of his former self that wasn't ready to let go yet, even though he wanted nothing more as for it to do so… Everything that used to signify him was shrouded in a daze, but that was okay, because it didn't matter here.

While he sought comfort in the ubiquitous darkness, he perceived that even the last links that connected him to his old life were starting to diminish, the more he gave in and accepted his momentary state.

His senses had almost extinguished by now and even his thoughts were fading and paled into insignificance, as he heard a clangorous voice, coming from outside of the veil that was surrounding him.

Even though the voice was a little distorted and distant, he could nevertheless discern every word and yet didn't understand any of it. He had trouble concentrating, but while he tried, he noticed that his mind became stronger again and the darkness was pushed back into a more distant corner of his mental constructs. The voice was still there and even though he was able to hear every word that was spoken, he couldn't make out their meaning, he wasn't even able to identify the speaker's sentiment – as if he had lost his whole association ability – probably because it wasn't needed at the place he was at.

Nevertheless something drew him towards that inscrutable voice.

He felt the sudden urge to understand it.

Nothing else mattered any longer.

So he allowed his mind to gain more and more strength, noticing how the comforting blackness around him faded, the more control it acquired and he started to find his way through the darkness by moving into the direction the voice was coming from.

The farther he left the core of this languorous sphere behind, the more his senses started to come back and he felt how a throbbing pain passed through his every bone.

But then there was something else; a pervading warmth, spreading from his lower belly through his entire body, driving out the coldness the darkness had left in him.

It seemed to be an endlessly long and hard struggle until he was finally able to break through the surface of this dark sea of nothingness, but as he did, he cast up his eyes, and blinked dazedly.

The darkness started to fade.

…

…

The second his eyes opened, they were blinded by a radiant green light, so he pressed them shut again and merely concentrated on the pleasant, warm feeling that started to drive out the pain that seared through his entire body.

Where was he and what had happened?

He was unable to recall anything of the past events; it seemed as if his brain was working in slow motion – totally frustrating.

Why was he in pain and how come he felt so uncommonly weak.

He opened his eyes, hoping that what he'd see would jog his memory, but it took quite some time until his eyes adjusted to the beaming emerald light, which seemed to be surrounding him, but even then his vision was still very blurry.

He first looked into the dark sky, staring at the tiny snowflakes that had started falling graciously from the clouds above, but melted at once as they came in contact with any surface. He then directed his eyes to the front, staring at the silhouette of a person, but unable to see any details, since the beaming light didn't really help his already poor vision.

The rusty smell of blood lingered in his nostrils and filled him with a nauseous feeling.

He closed his eyes again, concentrating on his hearing this time. His ears were throbbing loudly, making it hard to discern any other sounds, but still he could perceive a noisy swoosh and some other sound he couldn't quite identify.

He mulled over everything he had just learned, trying to make sense of it.

The pain, the weird light, the smell of blood, the roaring noise… One by one all the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fall into place. He remembered the fight, remembered the outcome of it, and remembered the look on her face as she stabbed him. He would have never thought that she would actually do it, but apparently he had misjudged her… It seemed as if he didn't know her as well as he thought he would…

Anyhow, she had stabbed him, so why was he alive now? He was alive, wasn't he? He had to be – otherwise his body wouldn't be aching like this… but more importantly, why had she saved him?

Even with his eyes closed, he could perceive how the light grew fainter and the warming effect ceased, but didn't vanish entirely yet…

He blinked a couple of times before his lids fluttered open entirely. His vision had cleared a bit more and he was finally able to take in more of his surroundings.

He could see Sayuri, sitting almost dazedly on his hips, while her hands rested on his lower abdomen, still emitting a pale green light, but far less radiant than just a couple of seconds ago. Her eyes were closed and her head dropped forwards every once in a while, as if she was struggling to fight back sleep. Her breathing came in short, shallow gasps, every now and then interrupted by some weak sobs and he could see tiny beads of perspiration and the melted snow glisten on her forehead, while far bigger teardrops still rolled down her cheeks.

She was healing him, even though she could barely keep herself conscious.

He tried to move, but the second he did, a sharp pain ran from his shoulder down his entire right arm. The memories of the kunai that had moments ago still stuck in his shoulder, returned and a grim expression took over his features. Though he couldn't move his right arm, he noticed that the paralysis on his left one had faded, so he moved it upwards and closed his hand around Sayuri's wrist, startling her out of her concentration by doing so.

The violet-haired girl blinked confusedly and looked down at her hands, which were no longer emitting her healing-chakra. Her eyes were wide with shock as they slowly wandered up the hand that was tightly wrapped around her own, until they eventually reached Sasuke's open eyes.

Her mouth fell agape in sheer astonishment and a flood or relief suddenly poured over her.

"Y-you…" she stuttered, new tears filling her eyes, which were already red from all the crying. She sucked in her lower lip, fighting back a relieved smile that was just about to take shape on her lips and leaned close over him. He let out a fleeting gasp and grinded his teeth as she shifted her position, so she moved up a little, trying to put as little weight on him as possible. Overly cautious, she led a hand to his face, placing her thumb underneath his brow and pulling it upwards a little, to catch a better glimpse of his pupils.

He was okay…

An exhausted smile flashed over her face and her eyes were shining with relief as she dropped her hand, letting it run over his cheek and through his hair, before it came to a halt on the ground.

"I'm so, soo sorry…" She muttered in a tear-chocked and still raspy voice, averting her eyes from his, as if she was ashamed of what she had done.

She heard how Sasuke exhaled deeply and turned her eyes upwards again, only to find his closed. Again that pensive expression.

She noticed how he let go of his grip around her wrist and moved his hand over his chest, to the wound on his right shoulder. She thought he just wanted to check it, but then he slightly lifted up his upper body and reached with his arm farther over his shoulder, groping for something on the ground.

"You really shouldn't have done this…" His low, almost hesitant voice reached her ears and was followed by a soft metallic clang, as he drew his katana out of its sheath.

Gasping in shock, Sayuri stared into his vacant face. His eyes were halfway closed and he still looked weak and exhausted, but nevertheless he lifted up his arm, exposing his Kusanagi's full length. Almost in slow motion, he raised it above the back of the girl, who was still kneeling on top of him. The tip of it, which had been directed to the ground before, pointed to the side as he turned his wrist.

Finally opening his eyes, Sasuke stared into her shocked, if not frightened face, but his stony countenance didn't falter. He tapped the point of his katana against her lower back, all the time looking at her, studying her reaction.

As she finally realized what he was about to do, she detached her eyes from his, disappointment replacing all other emotions that might have been visible in her face before.

It was a battle for life and death – she hadn't been able to kill him and now he would kill her. That's how it worked in a world reigned by ninjas. His actions shouldn't surprise her, they were predictable… and yet she had hoped it would be different. Actually she didn't even know what she had hoped for, but this sure wasn't it…

She pressed her eyes shut again and bid on her trembling lip. It seemed as if she got smaller as she shrinked down, anticipating the oncoming impact, but as it came, it felt different than she would have expected it to do.

Instead of piercing through her, the blade seemed to just fall on her back; bouncing off her and landing with a hollow thud on the ground.

She was just about to open her eyes again, trying to find out what had just happened, when she felt a sudden pressure on her back, a bit above the point where his katana should have hit her, the strain causing her to collapse and fall right on top of the raven-haired man, her head landing in the crook of his neck, sending a painful jolt up her bloody nose.

Completely startled, she wrenched her eyes open and tried to push herself upwards, but as her eyes had only just met his swiftly, she felt how the pressure, which was, as she now realized, caused by his hand, was suddenly at the back of her head and his fingers gripped her hair, pushing her head down again.

Before she even knew what was happening, Sasuke's lips were pressed against her own, crushing them almost forcefully. Not releasing his grasp from her hair, he didn't give her the chance to protest, even though she was way too taken aback to even think of that now. He buried his fingers even deeper into her hair, pulling her closer to him in a painful manner, while his kiss grew more demanding, but nevertheless remained one-sided. Sayuri's lips just stayed taut, unresponsive; even her body had stopped trembling by now, as if she had frozen on the spot – just like back then…

He relaxed his grip and as soon as he had relinquished his hold on her, she drew her head back, but still remained close enough to his face that he could feel her warm, slightly quickened breath brush his face. He searched her gaze, trying to find out what she was thinking, but her wide eyes were entirely blank and unfocused, it was impossible to read anything in them… but that was probably the best expression to do justice to her troubled state of mind. Her entire head felt empty, even though it was probably bursting with thoughts – far more than she could ever pay her full attention, too.

He had kissed her again.

This was even more bizarre and confusing than the thought of him wanting to kill her right after she had healed him… after all, she was the reason why he had to be healed in the first place, so all of that kind of did make sense… at least more than his current behaviour…

His hand dropped down again, grazing her arm lightly before it hit the ground, right next to his katana. A jaded sigh escaped the Uchiha's parted lips, while he closed his eyes in resignation, a weird expression flitting over his worn-out face.

Sayuri's eyes were now fixed on Sasuke's face, studying his countenance, but not understanding it. She had never seen him look like that, this wasn't merely exhaustion; he seemed to be frustrated … downcast…?

Was he hurt by her reaction? - Unlikely, but she didn't trust her own reasoning any longer – after all she would have never thought that he would do something like that either… no… do it again - repeat that one-off, that hadn't even taken place, to be precise… Had she misjudged him from the start?

Almost automatically, as if she was no longer in control of her own body, she laid a hand on his cheek, carefully letting her thumb travel over a small cut she had caused herself and wiping the melting snowflakes from his face, with an almost trance-like and yet concentrated look in her eyes.

The cold had benumbed his senses, but as he finally registered the subtle touch on his skin, he flung his deep black eyes open again and fixed them on the now softened but still almost apathetic features of his opposite, but her eyes soon became focussed again and peered intently into his.

Her lips were parted slightly, as if she meant to say something, but then she closed them again and swallowed, before she let her tongue run over her chapped lips, never breaking the intensive eye contact they shared and that made them forget about everything else, like for example the not exactly favourable circumstances in which they had met again or the wounds and the pain that went along with all that…

Everything that happened then had a dreamlike, almost unreal quality to it, even though their senses seemed to be sharpened to the highest degree. Still with her hand resting on Sasuke's cheek, Sayuri slowly lowered her head, never taking her eyes off the man underneath her, until the tip of her nose touched his gently and her lips found their way to his, pressing against them hesitantly. It was a short, almost shy kiss, hardly more than a brief, innocent meeting of lips, but still it sent a strange but also pleasant feeling through her entire body.

Her shining, perse eyes turned upwards, a questioning expression clearly visible in them and an insecure smile crossed her lips, as if she wasn't sure whether she liked what had just happened or not and searched for reassurement…

The corners of Sasuke's lips turned up a little, not enough to refer to it as a smile yet, while he briefly closed his eyes and let out a sneering snort. He slowly lifted up his functioning arm again and gently stroked his thumb over her still bloody lips, before he placed his hand on her cheek and pulled her closer to him, this time capturing her in a fuller, deeper kiss, that sent her mind reeling.

She had no idea just how long they had kissed each other, but she didn't really care anyway, as long as it didn't stop, but much to her disappointment the end wasn't long in coming…

All of a sudden, Sasuke's lips grew stiff and he firmly grasped for her shoulder, pulling her closer, before he tugged her around harshly and rolled her to the side, until they came to a halt with him lying on top of her. All oxygen was squeezed from Sayuri's lungs as the Uchiha's full weight crashed down on her and her eyes widened from the sudden pressure, before an almost timid expression took over her features. Gasping for air, for the who-knows-how-maniest-time this day, she looked into his face, every single muscle in her body tensing up, ready to make an escape if necessary, in case he had changed his mind and wanted to kill her after all, but his head was turned to the side and as she followed his gaze, she perceived a bunch of kunais, sticking in the earth right at the very spot, they had just been lying at.

"What the-?" Sayuri gasped in shock and perceived with an uncomprehending expression how the Uchiha let go of her and rose to his feet. Took him quite an effort to do so, she hadn't been able to fully heal his abdominal wound, so he still was in a lot of pain, but he nevertheless raised his katana he had apparently clutched, before he had rolled them into safety and pointed it at his opposite.

Remarkable – she had been way too distracted to concentrate on anything but his lips, whereas he had not only recognized the danger, but had also pulled them out of harms way just in time – and they say women would be better in multitasking than men… Well… exceptions proved the rule, right?

But what had happened anyway and where had the attack come from?

"Seems like you're not as dead as you seem…" A firm voice reached their ears and caused the two shinobi to turn their heads into the direction it had come from.

A masked man, dressed in dark ninja gear with noticeably many pockets on it, apparently filled with scrolls and weapons, stood on the rocks at the top of the waterfall. With a haughty sneer on his face he jumped down, landing on one of the smaller rocks, bordering the natural basin the waterfall was flowing into, just a couple of metres away from Sasuke and Sayuri.

Hardly anything of his face was visible and his hair was likewise hidden by a hood and the dark mask he was wearing underneath it. There were numerous swords and lances tied to his back, most of them looking rather valuable but worn.

"And who are you…?" Sasuke asked with a grumpy edge to his voice, eyeing the weird man closely. Nothing of his posture gave away his poor physical condition, but it took him quite an effort to keep it like that.

"He belongs to the Hagetaka-clan…" Sayuri muttered with a grim and still hoarse voice, as her eyes fell on the small brown emblem, which adorned the rogue-nins chest. Sasuke cast a questioning side-glance over his shoulder, a frown appearing on his face as he perceived how the violet-haired girl sat up.

"They are the lowest scum… they have a supreme ability to sense chakra and use it to make out ongoing fights. Then they wait until all participants are either dead or too weakened to offer any resistance and relieve them of all their weapons and other kinds of valuables – as their name says, they are just like some nasty vultures…"

While she enlightened the Uchiha, Sayuri's eyes remained fixed on the masked man, a disgusted expression clearly visible in them, especially as she realized that the man seemed to be quite proud of the really not favourable description she had given of him. Detaching her gaze from him again, she struggled to her feet too, but as she was only just standing, everything around her turned black at once and she had to clutch for a nearby tree to keep herself from falling back down again. After having taken a couple of deep breaths, Sayuri felt fairly okay, so she opened her eyes again, pushed herself away from the leafless tree and forced her feet to move forwards. However she hadn't even taken more than two steps when an outstretched arm in front of her made her come to a halt again.

"Stay back. I'll take care of him…" Sasuke shot her a severe look, making sure that she'd do as she was told, before he pulled his one functioning arm back again and pointed his katana at the man in front of him who had been watching them with a kind of retarded and inept look in his eyes.

"Well, well… judging from your chakra I really doubt that…" He grinned, but nevertheless kept his position a good distance away from the Uchiha. "But just in case I brought support with me.

As if by command, around 20 men, wearing similar clothes as the first one, came jumping down the top of the mountain face, some of them landing on the water surface of the small basin, whereas others jumped straight towards the two shinobi and formed a circle around them.

"So then… we'll see who'll take care of whom…" The leader of the Hagetaka-clan sneered, drawing one of the katanas he was carrying on his back and pointing it into the air, a gesture which was soon copied by all his fellow clansmen.

"Tze…" The Uchiha hissed and with one quick movement of his katana, the first two rogue-nins standing closest to him, sunk to the ground and a startled murmur went through the group; they weren't used to fighting enemies who were actually able to defend themselves…

Sasuke's eyes narrowed until they were mere slits, glinting menacingly at the slightly unsettled people around him.

"What are you waiting for?! Don't forget we are at least ten times as many as them, so let's show them what we're made of!" Their leader declared, still standing at a good distance from the two shinobi. His words seemed to have their effect on his clan though; they again raised their weapons and started their counter-attack, with a wild battle cry. They all came at them at once, making it almost impossible to dodge their attacks, especially since Sasuke wasn't even able to move at his normal pace and use all his limbs or his Sharingan and even though their numbers decreased at a considerably fast pace in the first couple of minutes, it nevertheless became harder for the Uchiha to stay focussed and the new injuries, caused by the hits he hadn't been able to block, not to mention the old and far worse ones, didn't add to his well-being either…

Another one went down, as the blade of Sasuke's Kusanagi slashed across his chest, not hitting him in a vital spot though. Turning around, the raven-haired man searched for his next opponent, when his eyes fell on his former team-mate who had apparent trouble with two rogue-nins, who were cornering her, while a third one had sneaked up on her from behind and was just about to hit her with his machete-like short sword.

In the blink of an eye, Sasuke stood right next to her and shoved her to the side, causing her to fall to the ground, before he decapitated the man that had almost killed her, using the momentum of his attack to twist around and hit the other twos in the same movement. Getting there in time had caused him a lot of effort, so he was panting heavily and had about reached his limits, as he turned to the side, to make sure his former team-mate was okay.

"Didn't I tell you to stay back?" He snarled, casting an austere glare at the violet-haired girl, who was struggling to sit up with a pained expression on her face.

"Hahaha… good one" Sayuri grimaced wryly, before she flinched with wide eyes and cried: "Watch out behind you!"

Sasuke spun around, but wasn't able to keep the approaching kunai from brushing his side at the height of his chest. A pained hiss whistled through his clenched teeth, as he stared at the last three Hagetaka's who weren't lying half-dead on the ground or had run away yet. It was hard to make them out, because his vision had gone blurry and he was swaying on unsteady feet – apparently the wound had gone deeper than he had thought.

"Kukuku…" The leader of the Hagetaka-clan chuckled mockingly, finally covering the distance to the Uchiha and kicking against his legs, causing him to fall to the ground, without another movement. "A kunai itself can be quite a dangerous weapon, but a poisoned kunai…" He shook his head with a broad grin on his face, before his eyes travelled from Sasuke's figure, to the katana he was still holding in his hands.

"This looks quite valuable… I guess I have to thank you for taking out so many of my men – this way I don't need to share…" His grin grew even wider, as he glanced with an almost affectionate look at the katana and crouched down to pick it up. Before he could grab hold of it though, he perceived a whooshing sound and took a great leap backwards, only just escaping the shuriken which had been aimed at him. His now angry gaze travelled into the direction the attack had come from, until his eyes fell on the girl, who had now positioned herself in front of the motionless body of the raven-haired man.

"Oh… you're there too…" His eyes grew cold again, as he looked at the last obstacle that separated him from his treasure. Nodding to both sides, he motioned his two fellow clansmen to do the job for him, again staying out of everything linked to physical exertion.

'Just two.' Sayuri tried to encourage herself, even though she felt so dizzy that she saw at least six blurry figures in front of her.

Raising up another handful of kunais, she had picked up from the ground before, she concentrated and threw them at her opponents, but didn't even get close to hitting them.

Boisterous laughter filled the air, as they approached the exhausted kunoichi and pounced on her like two hungry lions. She stumbled to the side, trying to lead them away from her former team-mate, while she gripped for the last gas-bomb she had left and threw it at them.

A thick smoke-screen filled the air, casting a dark-grey veil about everything in a 30 metre radius. Closing her eyes, Sayuri concentrated hardly on seeing her enemies, even though her vision was still very blurry and the faint dark-grey contours she perceived, hardly stood out from their almost equally grey surroundings, but luckily their confused and above all loud cursing made up for what she wasn't able to see. Pulling a few kunais out of the ground, the violet-haired girl approached the two rogue-nins, hoping that she would be less likely to miss if she was closer to them… and she was right, at least partly. She was able to hit one of them and judging from how he was screaming, she must have hit him really badly, but he was still screaming – ergo he was still to be considered as a potential threat, whereas the other one was still entirely unharmed.

She stood just about three metres away from him, but was sure that he hadn't noticed her yet, so she scanned the ground for any other weapons in her reach she could attack him with, while she realized to her dismay, that the smoke was slowly starting to fade.

Where the hell were the weapons? She frantically scrutinized the terrain in front of her, not finding any useful objects, while she could literally hear the clock counting down the seconds in her mind, as she ran out of time, until her eyes fell on a thin katana right in front of her enemy's feet.

'Damn' she cursed mentally, before she stumbled forwards on unsteady feet and fell to the ground at the man's feet, gripping for the sword but unable to get up again. The smoke was gone now and the Hagetaka finally noticed the girl in front of him and swung his sword back to gain enough momentum to kill her with one single strike, but before the blade reached her, she rammed the katana she was holding in her hands, upwards and shoved it into his guts. A failing shriek escaped his mouth, before he dropped down to his knees and fell onto the girl in front of him, burying her under his body. With a final effort she shoved the unconscious man off her, desperately trying to pull her legs from under his lifeless and especially heavy body, while she scrutinized the area carefully, getting more and more anxious as she couldn't find a trace of the leader of the thievish clan.

Her strained blue eyes wandered frantically from one side to the other, but she couldn't see anything, but some blurry, shapeless colours and a couple of contours. A queasy feeling began to stir in her stomach, as she realized that her senses were diminishing and that she was close to passing out. Grinding her teeth, she crawled towards the spot she assumed Sasuke to be. Covering the few metres to him took her what felt like eternity, but as she finally reached him she leaned over him, seeing or rather assuming that his eyes were open, so she called his name even though she wasn't sure that any actual sounds parted her lips, and shook his body slightly to get his attention, but except for some minimal movements, he remained motionless and just stared into space. Then all of a sudden a dark shadow fell over the violet-haired girl and before she could even turn around, a blunt object was slammed forcefully against the back of her neck and everything around her turned black in an instant.

"It's just us two now…" The leader of the Hagetaka-clan grinned and rubbed his hands together with excitement. Letting his tongue run over his lips, he bowed down and extended his hands towards the shining, blood-stained katana, the black-haired man was still holding in his hands, apparently unwilling to let go of it, despite the fact that he was barely half-conscious.

His greedy fingers were only a hairbreadth away from the object of his desire and he could literally feel how his synapses released enough serotonin to make him feel high, however before his fingers were able to touch the cold metal, a blunt silver-grey object appeared in front of his face and blocked his view.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you…" An almost cheery, but nevertheless cold and even somewhat threatening voice reached his ears and as he turned around, he saw a dark cloak right behind him, so he let his gaze travel upwards, centimetre by centimetre, until it fell on some sharp white teeth, clearly exposed by the mischievous smile that stretched across the man's entire face. His silver-white hair was blown into his face by the chilly winter wind and his blue-violet eyes were focussed on the scene before him, holding an almost amused expression in them. Then his gaze travelled to the huge, broad sword he was holding in his hands.

"That's the Decapitator!" The masked man mumbled, his eyes widening, as his collector's heart skipped a beat in excitement.

"Right…" Suigetsu affirmed, before he nudged the man with the blunt side of his sword and caused him to fall on his butt. "Looks like you have quite a notion when it comes to swords…" The Houzuki's bright eyes wandered over the numerous swords that were tied to the man's back and a frown appeared on his face. "… or maybe not." He wrinkled his nose in disgust about that poor collection, before he kicked against the man's head, causing him to lose his consciousness at once and fly at least five metres away, until a tree blocked his path and he was slammed with a goose-bumps-causing thud against it.

"Holy…!" A female voice broke the not really quiet silence and was soon followed by the owner of it, who jumped out of a nearby tree and landed right next to the silver-haired man.

"Sasuke! What the hell happened?!" A red haired-woman, dressed in a bluish uniform-like blouse and black shorts, crouched down to him and roughly pushed the unconscious girl, who was lying on his legs, out of the way, at once starting to check his pulse and examine his wounds.

"How should I know – I only just arrived, too – but still waaayy before you, I should say." Suigetsu raised his eyebrows and gazed down at his unloved team-mate, barely able to keep a smug expression out of his face.

"I wasn't talking to you, asshole!" She snapped sourly, before she closed her eyes, and pressed her two forefingers together in front of her face, concentrating on the chakra-flow in Sasuke's body.

Struggling to keep himself from hitting the woman in front of him, Suigetsu grinded his teeth and clenched his shaking fists that were yearning to be slammed into the red-heads face.

"He's been poisoned!" Karin finally gasped, laying her hand at the side of Sasuke's face and softly slapping against it, in the attempt to gain his attention.

"Well, you're the Medic-nin – do something about it!" The Houzuki's demand was met by a deadly glare on the part of the red-haired woman and she snarled: "Stop bossing me around – I know that myself!!"

"If that's the case, than how about actually doing something?!" The white-haired man rolled his eyes in annoyance, before he gazed to the side and observed the arrival of the last member of their four-man cell.

"What happened?" Juugo stated in his usual calm voice, as he slowly stepped towards the small group of people.

"Looks like he was busy…" Suigetsu shrugged and let his eyes roam over the many lifeless bodies that were almost covering the entire ground, before he turned his attention back to Sasuke.

Karin was just helping him to sit up, but it didn't seem as if the Uchiha would be able to hold that position on his own, so she turned to her two other team-mates and barked. "Gosh, stop just standing around and help me!"

"Whatever the princess wants…" The Houzuki grimaced and bent down, placing an arm at Sasuke's back and shoulder to support him.

"Hmph…" Karin snorted resentfully, before she pulled the sleeve of her right arm up, revealing numerous old bite marks that seemed to cover her entire skin and held it in front of Sasuke's face.

"Come on, bite me Sasuke!" She urged him and felt how the Uchiha's teeth slowly and feebly sunk into her skin, his bite getting stronger as more and more of her chakra ran through his body and healed his injuries, even driving the poison out of his body. Pressing her mouth shut, she tried to suppress a scream, but it nevertheless came through her grinded teeth, as the pain became too intensive for her to bear. As soon as he had regained his strength, Sasuke let go of her at once and shot an almost confused glance at them, before his eyes hardened again and he got up.

"Thank you Karin." He muttered, as his gaze fell on the bleeding mark on Karin's arm.

"Be more careful next time, I can't always safe you!" She snapped in a harsh voice, still breathing heavily, before she turned her head away from him to hide the content smile, which started to spread on her lips, same as the suspicious colour that flashed over her cheeks.

"What happened to you?" Juugo repeated his question, causing everyone to look at him.

"I had a fight." The raven-haired man explained reticently, letting his watchful pupils wander up and down the battle-field until they came to a halt, as they reached the motionless figure of his former team-mate.

"You had not…!" Suigetsu clutched a hand in front of his mouth in a dramatic manner. It was so obvious that he had fought someone that he just couldn't help but to throw a sarcastic remark at him. However as the Uchiha didn't react to his statement, he followed his gaze and scratched his head. "Say… isn't that the one from your looser-team? Don't tell me _she_ bet you up like that!" He raised an eyebrow and pointed a finger at Sayuri in disbelief.

A tense silence followed his words, everyone's eyes intently focussed on the young Uchiha, anticipating his response, but just as usual his answer was way too sparse to satisfy their curiosity.

"Hn." He merely shrugged, leaving the interpretation of his gesture to his team, before his eyes narrowed as Juugo crouched down to the unconscious girl.

"She's in a really bad condition…" The orange-haired man muttered, after he had brushed a thin layer of snow out of her face, revealing the ashen colour of her hypothermic skin.

Everyone just stared at the two of them, but no one replied, until Karin turned her back on them and finally asked: "So what do we do now, Sasuke?"

After taking a few moments to think things through, Sasuke raised his voice and replied: "We'll leave. They'll probably come to search for her soon, so we should be far away by then. Let's go."

Without casting another gaze back, the Uchiha turned around and started walking, as did the two people next to him, too, but Juugo held them back. "With the cold weather and her injuries she's going to be dead, before anyone shows up here… She was a member of your team, right – you can't leave her here like this..." Juugo's eyes held a worried expression in them, as he scrutinized Sayuri's blood-drained face, before he directed an urging glance at his team-leader.

Turning around again, Sasuke observed the unconscious girl closely for quite some time, before his eyes turned to Juugo again and he said: "If that's what you want then take care of her, just don't lag behind - now let's go."

Karin's eyes widened in shock and a frown formed on her forehead. She knew that Sasuke was averted to actively killing someone, but what did he care, if one of his opponent's succumbed to his injuries? This behaviour was totally unlike him and besides, the thought of having another girl near her crush didn't delight her at all… Grinding her teeth, she watched how Juugo picked up the injured girl and pulled up the bottom of his cloak and wrapped it around her, to shield her from the frigid temperature, while her head swayed loosely from side to side, as the huge man made his way over the numerous bodies that covered the entire area. Biting at her lip until she drew blood, Karin tried to fight the urge to scream and instead just kicked against the unlucky person in front of her, who happened to let out a moan and with that drew her attention to him, in the very wrong time. Feeling at least a little bit better, Karin ran a hand through her blazing red-hair and adjusted her glasses, before she followed after her team, which had already walked ahead without her.

…

…


	42. Psycho squad

**42.**** Psycho squad**

The soft plitter-platter of raindrops, pattering on the roof and plopping against the glass of the windows, was the only sound that could be perceived in the small rectangular room for quite a while, until a faint moan broke the silence, appearing much louder than it would have done on other occasions.

A couple of candles, filled the room with a dim orange light, the flickering of the tiny flames, causing long shadows to dance in staccato movements over the bleak, shabby walls and the foot worn floor, bringing motion into the room that didn't seem to have any actual source, seeing as everything was perfectly still and motionless.

Another soft moan dinned through the silence, closely followed by the rustling of the covers, as the girl, lying on one of the two futons at either side of the room, moved her arms to her forehead, while her eyelids fluttered suspiciously, but didn't open just yet.

Her dark-violet hair framed her still alarmingly pallid face and fell in messy strands over her bruised forehead and her red-rimmed eyes, forming a huge contrast to her pale white skin. Wiping a hand over her still closed lids in a shaky and somewhat uncoordinated movement, Sayuri slowly awoke from the deep, dreamless sleep, into which her previous exhaustion had thrown her.

Her misty blue-eyes opened dazedly and she blinked a couple of times, in need of some time to adjust to the dim lighting of her surroundings. All she could see was a blurry mass of different brown and orange shades, until her sight clarified and she focussed her nevertheless tired eyes on the yellowed ceiling, which was supported by some thick dark-brown wooden beams, right above her.

"You're awake." A soft, clear voice reached her ears, but she wasn't able to identify it, so she slowly turned her head to the side and looked into the direction she assumed the speaker to be.

Her eyes fell on the sitting figure of a doubtlessly large man, with spiky orange her and small maroon eyes. One of his arms was resting on the low windowsill, his fingers continuously clicking against the boards of the wooden venetian blind, which was pulled half-way down the huge window and blocked most of the view of the rainy grounds on the other side of the glass. His sharp and yet calm features were so perpetual; they seemed to be chiselled into his face and even though Sayuri had at first been shocked at the sight of the stranger, the warm and kind expression in his eyes made her calm down quite quickly.

Her muscles relaxed again and she let herself sink even deeper into the soft pillows, nevertheless keeping her gaze fixed on the unknown man, brooding about whether she had seen him before or not, not feeling ready yet, to just open her mouth and ask him.

"How are you feeling?" A slight tinge of worry, swung in his husky voice, even though Sayuri had no idea what might have caused that emotion in him. A frown corrugated her forehead, as she warily sized the man up, finally deflecting her attention from the intonation of his question to its actual contents.

'How was she feeling?' – actually a very simple question, you should think and yet the violet-haired kunoichi wasn't really able to find an answer to it.

If he meant her physical condition, then it was hard to tell. She didn't feel any pain, right now, but judging from the scrapes on her fingers and all the bandages that were covering her arms that should be different – especially as the memories of what had happened broke through the surface of her mind, she knew that the numbness she was feeling had to go back to analgesics… So you could say at the moment she was okay, but in the long term… she had no idea.

That much to her physical condition, but when it came to her mental state it was even harder to define. The past events, had done a lot to unsettle her, quite frankly, if there weren't the wounds to prove that it had really happened, she wouldn't believe it, but as it was, there was no doubt about it… She really had fought Sasuke, had nearly killed him and then kissed him… but where was he now and how was he doing? She remembered him falling to the ground and not moving thereafter and she had no idea what had happened to their opponent... What had happened after she had lost her consciousness, anyway? And where was she now and who was that guy with the calm face? And why did he look worried when she had never even met him before?

Supporting herself with her arms, she tried to push herself upwards, but a surge of dizziness swept over her like a tidal wave and it had all the seeming as if the walls and floors were closing in on her and would squeeze her to pieces, so she remained in this half-erect position for a couple of seconds, taking some deep breaths and waiting for her circulation to stabilize again and more importantly the nausea to fade, before she gave it another try.

This time she was successful, even though she nonetheless felt as if her brain was spinning around in fast circles, changing from clockwise to counter-clockwise rotations, just for the sake of tantalizing her, so she robbed backwards, away from the futon she had been lying on, without moving any more than necessary and leaned herself against the nearby wall, just opposite of the corner the stranger, who was still watching her with an anxious expression, was sitting in. Something was different; she just couldn't tell what exactly it was, until she looked down at herself and realized that she was wearing different clothes. Just a simple white kimono, only about as long as a short dress, with a ruby ribbon - probably her old one - tied around her waist and a black, slightly tattered capri-leggings, the one she had worn before, too, so it were probably just her upper garments, which had been replaced, since they had been completely drenched with blood and torn in the course of their fight…

"There is some water for you." He nodded his head towards the windowsill right next to her, where a brown pottery mug and a matching carafe were standing.

Eyeing the two items warily, Sayuri slowly extended her hand towards the mug and enclosed her trembling fingers around it, finding it already filled with the clear liquid her dust-dry throat was yearning for. She hesitantly raised the vessel to her lips, still scrutinizing her opposite doubtfully, but as the first drops of the cool water moistened her lips and ran down her throat, she forgot about all suspicions and just drained the rest as if there was no tomorrow. As soon as it was empty, she put the mug down again and just stared at it with a vacant expression in her tired eyes, until she eventually detached herself from her thoughts and put it back at its previous place, at the end of the wooden window board, which spanned over the entire northern wall, of the small rectangular room. Looking around, she noticed that the only furniture of this chamber consisted of the two futons, which were both placed not even half a metre away from the nearest wall and were roughly a metre away from each other, and a tiny wooden cabinet on the left side of the closed door, which had to be, judging from its desolate state, very old and well used.

"Who are you?" She finally raised her voice and perceived how something of the concern vanished from her opposite's face.

"My name is Juugo." He erected himself slightly and shifted his position to sit cross-legged on the carpeted-floor, which had same as the walls and the ceiling, probably once been white but had eventually succumbed to the affliction of time and usual deterioration, causing them to take on a used beige-yellowish colour, as if it had been inhabited by chain smokers for the longest time, but the air smelled rather clean, except for the smoke of the candles, so it's miserable state really had to be down to old age and scarce cleansing…

'_Juugo'_ - she was sure that she had never heard that name before, so who was he and why had he saved her, or was he holding her captive? Was he maybe a member of the Hagetaka-clan; assigned to keep watch on her? - But why would they do that…? What good would it do them to keep her here?

As these thoughts passed through her head, Sayuri's body tensed up again and an uneasy expression invaded her face, even though she tried to keep it blank, but the change in her posture hadn't gone unnoticed by the orange-haired man in front of her.

"Don't be afraid – you are safe here…" He ensured her calmly, but wasn't really able to convince the girl.

"Where is Sasuke?" She enquired, her voice sounding somewhat hollow, as if it was echoing through a long tunnel, while she carefully eyed his every motion, to determine whether he was telling the truth or not.

Juugo took quite some time to think of an answer to her question, something that was rather suspicious in Sayuri's eyes, until he eventually responded with a tiny smile on his lips: "Sasuke is safe, too. You shouldn't be worried…"

Detaching her eyes from the tall man, Sayuri pondered over his words: Why hadn't he answered her question? Were they really held captive here, but if so, then for what reason? There wasn't anything the two of them could do for a clan, consisting mainly of cowardly low villains and thieves and why would they even give them medical treatment… after what had happened they should know that they couldn't let their guards down in their presence… No. This guy sure wasn't a part of that vulturous clan, but who was he then?

The sudden sound of the paper slide-door, being pushed to the side roughly, so that it clashed against it's frame, snapped her out of her thoughts and again her face was haunted by a timid expression as she observed the dynamic entrance of a woman with long, blazing red hair, which was combed sleek on her left side, while it was dishevelled and messy on the right one. With a resolute gait, she stepped towards the other girl in the room, stopping short as she was right in front of her.

"Well, well – looks like our sleeping beauty is finally awake…" She stated in a mocking voice, as she crouched down in front of the young kunoichi and peered into her face, while she adjusted her dark-rimmed glasses. The sudden proximity caused Sayuri to press herself into the wall as if trying to become one with it, in the attempt of bringing more distance between herself and the other woman, whose self-confident appearance was fairly intimidating her, but the relentless wall just wouldn't yield or let her in.

Realizing what an effect she had on the violet-haired girl, a self-complacent sneer started to spread on the red-heads face and she got up again, but nevertheless kept her red eyes fixed mockingly on the girl in front of her.

"You should be thankful… if it wasn't for Juugo here, you'd probably be dead by now…" She walked to the other side of the room and leaned herself with crossed arms against the wall, standing as far away from both her team-mate and the other girl as the room would allow.

"Oh… I didn't know you were having a party here, can I join you?" A man with silvery-white hair that had a light bluish tinge to it came through the open doorframe. He was wearing grey pants and a purple shirt with a brown belt around his waist and hip, which had a water bottle attached to it and a huge sword was tied to his back as well.

"Tze – pets not allowed, sharkboy!" The red-head snarled, casting a disapproving glare through narrowed eyes at the newcomer, while she wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Says the stupid animal…" He grinned with his eyes closed, listening to the cursing of the upset woman with apparent relish, before he opened them again and cast a piercing look at the now awake girl.

"So… you are the one from Sasuke's former team then, huh?" The white-haired man asked with a slight hint of amusement in his voice, revealing his sharp, shark-like teeth.

Observing how the 'sharkboy' picked his broad and somewhat familiar-looking sword from his back and leaned it against the old cabinet, Sayuri thought through his question and ran her tongue over her dry lips, before she decided to reply with a counter-question: "You're his new team, then?"

The wary tone in her voice caused a sly grin to appear on the two newcomers faces, while Juugo's expression remained motionless, his eyes fixed firmly on the ground.

"You're quite quick on the uptake, aren't you?" The man in the purple shirt chuckled and was just about to add something else, when the orange-haired man raised his voice.

"Kill… I want to kill…" He murmured in a toneless voice, as if he was in some kind of trance, while some dark signs started to spread over his skin and had already covered half of his face.

"Shit – he's loosing it again!" The red-haired woman shrieked and stormed towards Juugo at once, as did the white-haired man, too and they both started to hold him in place, while he finally left his motionless phase behind and started striking out wildly, giving the two ninjas a hard time to hold him down.

With wide eyes, Sayuri observed the anger fit of the now wildly roaring man and backed away from them in fear. It was uncanny just how often she had wished to be one with the wall, or at least invisible, in the last couple of minutes…

With a lunge of his arm, Juugo had shaken the red-haired woman off him and she landed with a loud thud on the floor before him, gasping loudly at the impact.

"Sasuke!" She screamed; her voice loud enough to drown out the clamouring of the huge man, before she got up and went for his arms again.

The man with the drinking bottle had just succeeded in taking him in a stranglehold, however Juugo just leaned down to the front and threw him in a wide arc over his head, but the silver-haired man remained obstinate and dashed back at him at once.

"Settle down Juugo." A calm and yet clearly audible voice resonated through the room and the roaring man fell quiet at once and sunk to the floor, as the other two finally let go of him.

Sayuri detached her eyes from the now shaking and repeatedly apologizing man and let her gaze wander to the open doorframe. With mixed emotions, she looked at her former team-mate, who just stood rigidly on the spot, closing his eyes to deactivate the Sharingan, which he had apparently used to calm the man down.

"Damn – what took you so long?!" The only female member of his team stepped towards him with a sour expression on her face, but came to a stop as she stood right next to the small cabinet, the sword was leaned against.

Instead of answering her, he turned his gaze to the right side of the room and looked straight at Sayuri, who was still almost frantically pressed against the wall, not understanding what had just happened, or what was going on in general…

Following the direction of his eyes, the woman in the light-violet blouse, turned towards the other girl, too and shot an upset glare at her, while her lips were pressed into a firm line.

"What is it Karin? – sizing up the competition?" The white-haired man snarled in a mocking voice, his wide grin revealing a neat row of sharp white teeth. "Looks pretty bad for y-"

"Shut up you asshole!" Karin shouted, completely flushed, as she gripped for the hilt of the sword and slammed it against its actual owner, cutting his body into halves.

"Holy…!" Sayuri screeched, completely aghast. What the hell was wrong with these people – were they some kind of psycho-squad? - One of them just switches from a kind guy to a wild lunatic for no apparent reason and the other one killed her team-mate just because of some simple allusions… Were these the kinds of people Sasuke preferred to spend his time with?

"Oh cut it out now, Suigetsu!" Karin stemmed her hands into her hips and looked down at the two-halves of her team-mate, with a cross expression on her face: She even started to nudge her foot into the sides of his upper half; at first just lightly, but later so roughly that his lifeless head rolled to the side, so that he stared through blank, dead eyes and with a fixed grin on his face, at the horrified girl, who was now blanched of even the little remaining colour that had still been left in her already ashen face. She was not only a murderer, but apparently she didn't even realize what she had done – she was surrounded by psychopaths…

"Enough now Suigetsu." Sasuke stated nonchalantly and earned a confused glance by the violet-haired girl, who had almost forgotten about the Uchiha's presence.

"Sheesh… okay, okay…" Suigetsu's eyes became focussed again and the grin on his face stretched even wider, as he gripped for the lower half of his body and put it back in place again, before he just got up as if nothing had happened.

"Haha – you should have seen your face!" He pointed a finger at Sayuri and started laughing, before he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Don't worry, I'm practically invincible." He grinned haughtily, but his statement earned a cynical retort by the red-head.

"Tze - invincible my ass…!" She snorted in a low voice and crossed her arms in front of her chest, still looking a little offended and the rufescent colour hadn't vanished from her cheeks either.

Suigetsu's eyes narrowed into slits and he threw a menacing glare over his shoulder at the only female member of his team. "If I was you, I'd watch my mouth … If you should ever touch my Decapitator again, I might feel tempted to test it on you… Then we'll see if it leaves you unaffected too…" His low voice was literally dripping with despise, but Karin didn't seem too impressed by his threat.

"Pshaw – then let's see you try it!" She started up and it seemed that her opposite had just waited for this invitation, because he picked up his sword at once and pointed it at her.

"Cut it out now!" Sasuke reprimanded them and it looked as if they would actually listen to him, at least they fell quiet and kept their quarrel down to merely exchanging one deadly glare after the other.

"Juugo, you're okay now?" He asked, as his eyes wandered over the trembling figure of the tall man, who still hadn't bothered to get up from the floor yet.

"I'm a danger… I can't look after her… I'll kill her…" He gasped in a quavering voice, while he shook his head repeatedly, before he looked up at the Uchiha with an almost pleading expression in his soft, maroon eyes.

Sasuke scrutinized him carefully for quite some time, before he nodded slightly and said in a low voice: "I'll do that… you can go now." His gaze travelled from one person to the next and even though his choice of words implied that it had actually just been a proposal, there was nevertheless no doubt that he had meant it as an order.

One by one they slouched somewhat reluctantly out of the door, everyone casting a last glance at Sayuri, which made her feel rather uneasy so she lowered her head and waited till they were gone. She badly needed some time to digest what had just happened anyway, so she really welcomed the subsequent silence.

Again the plitter-platter of the heavy raindrops, which looked like numerous black crystalline tears against the darkness, as they wandered down the glass of the windows, was the only sound that could be perceived, until Sasuke eventually took a few steps forwards and blew out the candles, which were standing on the dark-brown cabinet.

The soft sound drew Sayuri out of her thoughts and she looked back up, observing how the dark-haired man made his way to the windows, where he blew out all the other candles except for one as well, before he sat down against the wall opposite of her, raising one of his knees up and resting his arm on it.

A tense silence descended on the small room. The two people in it exchanging intent looks, but not a single word, even though Sayuri could think of at least hundreds of questions she wanted to ask him. Not breaking the eye-contact, Sasuke leaned his head forwards and rested it on his hand before he finally muttered in an almost inaudible voice. "You should sleep now."

Sayuri cringed a little, as she heard his voice, but then shook her head lightly, looking down at the floor, before she enquired: "What is going on here?"

He took some time to answer her question, all the time boring his eyes into hers, as if he was brooding over how much he could tell her.

"You were unconscious so we took you with us. That was two days ago…"

Two days? She had been out cold for two entire days? Unbelievable, she could be who knows where by now; this forced her to reconsider her whole situation again…

"Why did you bother?" Even after everything that had happened, she still wasn't sure about how he felt about her; the rather sober reunion was quite disenchanting…

He let out a weary sigh about her persistent scepticism, before he answered in his usual blank voice: "Juugo insisted on it…"

"… Oh…"

Wow. So a perfect stranger had wanted to help her and he had not? That sure wasn't what she had wanted to hear, but then she wasn't used to anything else coming from him. He had never cared about what people thought about him or about what he said. He was just totally insensible and painfully honest…

"Sleep now. We'll leave tomorrow morning, if you're not able to keep up, we'll leave you behind…" He erected himself and bent over the futon in front of him, pulling back the covers, but he stopped short in his movement, as he heard Sayuri's rather distressed voice: "Leave me behind? – Who said I was going with you anyway?"

With held breath, she observed his every movement, waiting for his response.

"You are free to go wherever you like… but it would be advisable for you to stick to us…" His coal-black eyes finally met hers again, but she wasn't able to keep the eye-contact for long, but turned towards the still burning candle and licked over her lips, before she asked in a quavering voice: "…Says Juugo…?" She bit on her lower lip, feeling as if someone had made a knot in her throat and was pulling it ever tighter.

"Hn." He merely mumbled, giving no clear yes or no, before he laid down on his futon and pulled the covers over his body.

So that's how it was… she could go wherever she wanted to… do whatever she liked… he didn't care.

Well, at least Juugo did… apparently… if he wasn't in one of his killing fits at least… But if she could really do what she wanted, what was the point of having a watch for her then?

She focussed her gaze on the back of the Uchiha again and felt terribly tired all of a sudden. Her eyes seemed to fall shut, even before she had reached her sleeping berth again, so she just let herself drop onto it, pulled at an edge of the covers and sporadically spread it over her lower body. Even though it was actually quite warm in the room, she began shaking from a cold that seemed to have its origin within her, so she raised her knees up and buried her face in them, trying to become as small and preferably invisible as was possible, while she slung her arms around her body, as if she meant to shield herself from everything around her. From everything that might hurt her, just like the person in the bed next to hers.

…

…

Silvery stripes – that was about all light that illuminated the tiny room. The one candle had extinguished by now; all there was left of it was a shapeless mass of ivory-coloured wax that had spread over the dark wood of the low windowsill in the course of the night. It had stopped raining by now and the sky had cleared up again, so the narrow crescent of the moon was able to send narrow beams of its pale light through the broad wooden blinds, throwing a striped pattern on the floor and on the silhouettes of the two shinobi, who were lying in their beds, apparently sound asleep.

That wasn't entirely true though. Tormented by nightmares, the violet-haired girl was tossing her head from one side to the other, while some occasional convulsions ran through her body. Her slender fingers were clutching frantically at the fabric of her sheets and her shoulders jerked up, as if she was about to get up. Then she suddenly fell still and her eyes popped open, the second she swam up from the bottom of the troubled sea of sleep. As she broke through the surface, every trace of the dreams, which had tortured her for the most part of her short night, just vanished and got lost in the depths of the all-consuming black hole that was her mind, as was so much else along with it: gone and beyond reach…

There were numerous cracks and damp spots on the nicotine-yellow ceiling. Her eyes trailed every single one of the fine lines and fissures, spreading over it, observing them carefully enough to memorize them. The only reason she did that was as a means of procrastination - just to buy some time before she would make herself vulnerable again and look at her former team-mate and she would inevitably do that… Even though she feared the merciless floods of emotions that would come surging over her and drown her, when she did…

As this realization crossed her mind, procrastinating seemed to become pointless. Taking a deep breath, she turned her head to the side, the little movement causing a sharp but bearable pain to run through her body – it seemed as if the effect of the pain-medication was wearing off already…

She cocked her head to the side and a stripe of the silvery moon-light fell over her greyish-blue eyes, making them shine with a ghostly radiance. Her eyes narrowed sadly, as she observed the profile of the sleeping man next to her.

Drowning… just as she had feared…

His lips were parted slightly and his chest was heaving steadily in almost imperceptible stirrings. There was an uncommonly relaxed expression on his pale face and the rapid movement of his eyeballs under his closed lids implied that he was dreaming. Probably something good… otherwise he wouldn't look that placid and content.

A faint, plaintive smile rose on Sayuri's lips as she observed him, but than she remembered that there was actually nothing for her to smile about, not even the tiniest and sickliest of all smiles, so the corners of her mouth dropped down again and she let her hands run through her hair in distress, while a weary sigh escaped her lips.

She couldn't let him do that to her… letting him take lead of her life and fit it to his temporary moods. She should have a little more self-esteem than that; but that was the point: she _should_, but was that really the case?

The sound of the covers, being shoved aside, was so loud, that Sayuri was sure it must have awoken the raven-haired man, but nothing in his countenance had changed, he was still wandering around in the sweet land of dreams, apparently relieved from all the sorrow and trouble his daily life brought along.

Kneeling on her futon, Sayuri detached her eyes from the sleeping Uchiha-heir and looked absent-mindedly at her new clothes for yet another time, before she shook her head lightly and pressed her eyes shut for a brief moment.

She placed her hands on the floor, feeling the raspy texture of the old carpet under her palms, which sent a tickling feeling through her fingertips and crawled forwards, before she slowly pushed herself upwards.

In one second there was just the shabby, beige carpet in front of her eyes. Just the old carpet with its irregular fibres and the many stains, but then there was a sudden blur and before she even knew what had happened, she stared right into Sasuke's hard, jet black eyes.

He had pulled her down so rapidly that it felt as if her brain was still up in the air and everything was just whizzing about in front of her eyes, but as it finally returned to the place where it belonged, she gasped in shock and tried to push herself away from the Uchiha, but he had locked her wrists in an iron grip and wouldn't let her get away from him.

"Let… go... of… me…" She hissed through clenched teeth, keeping her volume down, because she didn't want anyone of his new team to wake up as well, but the raven-haired man remained completely unaffected by her struggling.

"Where do you think you are going?" His voice was equally shushed and a little irritated, as his coal black eyes glistened up at her and his grip on her wrists tightened even more.

"Out…" She snarled, still trying to free herself from him.

Things weren't going as she had planned… She had meant to leave before he woke up so she wouldn't have to see him awake again… that hadn't worked however and right now he showed himself at his best, reminding her again, why she had rather left unnoticed…

"I don't think so…" A light frown appeared on his forehead and his obsidian eyes narrowed disapprovingly.

"Didn't you say I could go wherever I wanted to?" She gasped and tried to hide the pain, she felt due to his firm grip on her already aching limbs, until it became too intense, so she panted with watery eyes: "Ow! Let… go… You're hurting me."

"You're still weakened; it's too dangerous for you to leave now." He sighed in annoyance and loosened his grip a little, but didn't let go of her just yet.

His statement sent a startled expression over Sayuri's face and she finally stopped struggling, realizing that it was pointless anyway.

"Why, what do you care?" She had a hard time to keep her voice steady, but her trembling lips gave her inner turmoil away anyhow. Nevertheless she kept her bleary eyes fixed on him, her face just a hand's breadth away from his.

He didn't answer her question, but just kept staring at her, or rather into her direction. His sable eyes were shrouded by an inscrutable mist and stared into space, as if he was searching for an answer himself…

She cast down her eyes and just stared at the fine line of his collarbone, again feeling the same, almost overwhelming tiredness from before pull at her and drag her lids down.

"Why? …why are you like this?" She muttered feebly, unable to keep the first tears from running down her cheek, faintly reminding of the many raindrops on the windowpane, which were glowing mysteriously in the pale light of the moon.

She still didn't look at him, as she felt how he finally let go of her arms and raised one of his hands up, to wipe away the small crystalline drops from her cold, chalk-white cheeks. She flinched away from the touch and turned her head to the side, while she bit on her quivering lip, fighting to maintain her self-control.

Then Sasuke's hands were at her wrists again, but instead of locking them again, he pulled them to the side, causing her to fall onto his body. Being near as she was to him, it wasn't a deep fall, but still not having anticipated this action, it knocked all breath out of Sayuri's lungs. She panted in shock, but before she could even think of getting up again, he had already slung his arms around her frail body and pulled her into a possessive embrace. One of his hands was resting, with a firm, but not restricting pressure on her lower back, while his other hand was placed at the back of her head and pushed it gently into the crook of his neck. With a low sigh, he rested his chin on her head and his fingers began stroking over her long, silky hair, in slow, almost soothing movements.

Her eyes were opened to their widest extend, but still she couldn't see anything but the smooth white texture of his skin and a bit of the dark fabric of his training-suit as well.

She went stiff and felt unable to move. Her mind was running amok again, disabling her from hearing herself think, as all her thoughts seemed to scream about in a wild frenzy, every single one engaged in a desperate fight for her attention.

She wanted to get up – slap him in the face and tell him that she wasn't some kind of yoyo he could just haul away and pull back whenever he liked, but she didn't have the will-power to do that. Not with him, keeping her in this protective embrace and stroking her consolingly… She had been alone ever since she could remember and now that she had finally been able to open herself up to someone, it was almost impossible to push him away again.

Regardless of how he treated her…

At least for now…

She wasn't herself today. She was weak, vulnerable, confused and just so exhausted… She didn't have the strength to fight him, or more importantly her own feelings just now…

But that didn't count - tomorrow would be different… Tomorrow she would be rested and stronger. Tomorrow she would be able to fight the tears that were now streaming down her face and landed with a barely audible plop on the soft skin of his chest. Tomorrow the world would be a different place, so there should be nothing wrong with just giving in for now and savouring the time she could still be close to him… Only for now…

A sigh signified the end of her poor attempts of justifying her own weakness in front of herself and her body eased up noticeably, but was still shaken by occasional shudders, resulting from her attempts to hold back the last sobs that added to those that had already gathered in her throat. She ran a hand over her tear-drenched cheek, to wipe the salty liquid away, before she wrapped her arms around Sasuke's neck, pushing herself as close to him as was possible while she buried her face in his shoulder, to muffle the sound of a wretched sob she tried to disguise as a gasp, she wasn't able to hold back any longer out of fear of chocking on it.

"Shh…" He hushed her and pulled the blanket from under her trembling body to tuck her in. A soft kiss was placed on her dark, smooth hair and he still carried on slowly stroking a finger up and down the nape of her neck, sending a pleasant shudder down her spine. She finally calmed down again and just submitted to his caresses with an empty mind, completely blocking out all the thoughts that were still buzzing wildly through her head, desperate to be heard…

All of a sudden Sasuke removed his hand from her neck and she felt how the cold seized its chance to attack the place, which has beforehand been withheld from it, at once. Ever so uncommonly gently, he brushed her fringe out of her face and tucked the longer strands of it behind her ear, before he placed his hand under her chin and pushed her face up to look into her eyes. They were like wide blue pools, the tears in them making that image even more authentic, but they were also unusually shallow – more like puddles – and were still careful to avoid his gaze. There was an indescribable sadness in them, making it hard to look at her…

He pushed her face farther up and pulled her closer to him, before he softly pressed his lips to her forehead, leaving them there for a long moment to enjoy the silky texture of her skin and inhale her pleasant fragrance, which still had a slight hint of a rusty smell to it, probably from the bigger wounds that hadn't entirely healed yet…

As he eventually detached his lips from her, he finally found her gaze fixed on him, however looking directly into her forlorn and somewhat empty eyes, was even harder to bear than that unfocused stare from before… Especially since he knew that it was his fault she was feeling this way. He usually didn't care about other people's feelings and yet with her it was different… he didn't want to see her like this – he couldn't even say why, but seeing her cry and look at him through these desolate, pained eyes, which were usually bright and full of depth, really affected him… made him feel guilty. But so many different things had happened lately, his entire world had changed and he just didn't know how to deal with all the feelings he was having right now. _She_ was just one of his least concerns… He wanted her to be close to him; really wanted that, but all the same he wanted her to be as far away as possible – for her sake at least… If he could he would keep her here, but he was a nuke-nin after all and he couldn't force that kind of life on her, she wouldn't be able to cope with it, he was sure about that… She needed to know that; know why he was behaving the way he did… at least as much as he knew about that himself and that wasn't too much…

"Sayuri…" He sighed uneasily and cupped her cheek in his hand, to make sure she would listen to him, but she closed her eyes and shook her head with an uneasy expression, apparently not too keen on verbal conversation, before she leaned closer to him and pressed her lips against his, disabling him from speaking.

Burying her fingers deep in his hair, she pulled herself even closer to him, while he wrapped his arms around her upper body as if he meant to crush her. There was something urging and forceful to their kiss, the former shyness and reluctance had vanished entirely, since this moment was shadowed by the mutual knowledge that this might be the last time they could be together like this…

Without breaking the kiss, Sasuke turned her over so that he was now on top of her, before he tenderly bit into her bottom lip and let his tongue run over her soft lips, savouring the slightly salty taste of them.

Without giving much thought to it, Sayuri opened her mouth a little to allow him access and the second the tip of his tongue slid over hers, her mind just went wandering and she completely forgot about time, space and all the worries, which had still plagued her just a couple of minutes ago.

The longer their kiss lasted, the warmer the air in the small room felt and all the oxygen seemed to leak out of the small cracks in the walls and ceiling and leave them in a vacuum, causing their bodies and especially their heads to feel completely swollen and airy, like a marshmallow in a bell jar.

She began feeling dizzy, but nevertheless tried to delay the moment she would inevitably have to break the kiss to meet the physical need of oxygen uptake, when she felt a sudden blackness close in on her and finally ripped her head back, opening her mouth up wide to take in as much of the cooling air as her lungs would take. Meanwhile Sasuke was trailing wet kisses down her throat, his breath coming at least as ragged as hers and his heartbeat was nowhere near its normal frequency either.

Even though she wouldn't have thought it possible, her breathing quickened even more, as she felt how one of Sasuke's hands moved from her upper arm to her chest and slightly shoved the thin fabric of her kimono to the side, at once starting to explore the new found terrain with his lips.

She drew a sharp breath and arched her back to shorten the distance between their bodies, while she slung her arms around Sasuke's neck and was at once met by his greedy lips, which took possession of hers right away. He gripped into her hair and pulled it back, forcing her to open her mouth , before he let his tongue slid into it again, involving her in a deep, passionate kiss that again didn't fail to take their breath away.

One of his hands slowly wandered down her side to her hip and then stroked over her thighs, the sensation of his touch sending electric currents through her entire body, conveying the impression that countless tiny fireworks emanated from his fingertips.

She tensed up and wrapped her arms tighter around Sasuke's neck, enclosing her fingers around as much hair as she could get, while she trailed a line of hot longing kisses from his cheek to his earlobe as his head wandered down again and his lips began placing butterfly kisses on the fine line of her collarbones, before he concentrated his attention on her chest, which was heaving so rapidly that it seemed close to bursting.

A sudden shiver shook her entire body, as Sasuke's tongue wandered over her belly and started caressing her skin. Biting on her lip, she tried to suppress a pant from escaping, while every single muscle in her body convulsed, as she sucked in her breath through clenched teeth.

This reaction of hers caused the corners of the Uchiha's mouth to rise up slightly, before he pushed himself upwards and began scrutinizing the girl underneath him with an unreadable expression in his gleaming black eyes.

He registered again just how small and petite she was, as he let his eyes wander over her still halfway dressed torso, paying some extra time on the soft curves of her chest and the places where her silky white skin was exposed. It looked almost translucent in the silvery light of the pale moon and there were still many scratched and bruises on her body, but instead of diminishing her beauty, they just made her look all the more fragile and vulnerable, stirring his protective instincts.

His gaze slowly roamed up her delicate neck which was still adorned by a couple of paled purplish marks his fingers had left on it and finally rested on her slightly flushed face. Her eyes held a somewhat faraway expression in them as she peered, apparently confused, up at him and her lips were parted slightly, her warm breath coming in short, quickened pants, as her heart seemed to beat at a heart-attack rate.

He lowered his head again, gently nudging the tip of his nose against hers, before he leaned in to kiss her again. At first just softly, but becoming more demanding as he resumed exploring every single line and curve of her body with his hands, until his fingers eventually stroked over her most intimate area, causing her to flinch and stiffen up at once, while she couldn't help but to moan into the kiss, unable to keep quiet any longer. However that very sound brought her mind back to reality again and made her realize just what she was doing here…

"Don't" She gasped in shock as she pulled her lips away from his and tucked her legs up. Lowering her eyes, she pulled her sleeve back over her shoulder, as soon as he had removed his hands from her body and just stared at the bleak wall next to her, trying to calm her tumbling heart again, which wasn't even nearly as easy as it sounded…

That was it. She had killed the mood… but he couldn't seriously expect her to go this far after everything that had happened – or rather not happened between them: she knew him for quite some time all right, but there has never really been anything of that sort between them… She had already made herself more vulnerable to him than she would have liked and now feared that he would tear her into pieces by not reciprocating the feeling she without a doubt had for him…

There was a soft rustling and then the weight on her body vanished, as he rolled off her and lay motionless on his back with his coal black eyes firmly fixed on the ceiling. His breathing still came in shallow, uneven bursts, along with hers the only sound that disturbed the nightly quiet of the place and filled it with a tense atmosphere.

This silence made Sayuri feel quite uneasy, after what had just happened she badly wanted to know what he was thinking, but she just couldn't bring herself to asking him. Did his silence mean that he was mad at her, or was he just as averted to talking as he usually was? He had no reason to be mad at her anyway – she just wasn't ready for something like that yet, especially considering where their relationship was… which would be about nowhere; they didn't have a relationship, they just happened to share a strong physical attraction – that was it… at least that's what she assumed to be on his part, but when it came to her she actually didn't have the slightest idea…

Moving her head a little into his direction, she let her eyes wander over the profile of his face. His eyes were closed and he looked perfectly composed, even his heart rate had returned to its normal pace by now, as if nothing had happened…

That image caused something in her chest to snap, the way a rubber band does when you pull it too hard and she lowered her eyes again, fixing them on his hand, which lay palm up beside his body, just a couple of centimetres away from her own hand. So close and yet so far away…

She craned her head a little bit further to the side and shot a demanding look at her own hand, as if she meant to encourage it to move towards his, but she just couldn't bring herself to it. She was afraid of rejection, but all the same she felt the almost unbearable urge to touch him again… Reason versus desire.

Her fist kept clenching and unclenching indecisively, while her id was embroiled in a fierce fight for predominance with her superego, and her ego, which was actually supposed to mediate between those two, just stood by and couldn't decide which side to choose… But the decision was taken from it as Sasuke's hand closed around her clenched fist and kept it from opening up again.

With a startled expression the violet haired girl looked up at him, but his face was still directed to the ceiling, his eyes closed. A light, insecure smile rose on Sayuri's lips and she slid closer to him again, hesitantly wrapping an arm around his waist and resting her head on his chest, while she registered how he again slung an arm around her back and gripped for the hand she had rested on his belly.

Again, she turned her head up to look into his face and received another kiss on her forehead while he leisurely started to stroke up and down her upper arm, the pleasant, even movement beginning to lull her, but she couldn't turn off her head just yet, not with all these questions that were pulling at the strings of her mind like impatient children at their mother's apron.

"…Sasuke?" The word boomed through the silence, as if someone had held a megaphone to her mouth, just for the fun of seeing her flinch about the sound of her own voice. His fingers stopped moving and she felt how he fixed his gaze on her, without even having to look at him, so she started verbalizing some of the thoughts, which had been racing through her mind lately:

"What will happen tomorrow?"

Right after the sound of her last syllables had faded away, his fingers resumed their former activity, apparently seeing nothing precarious in her words.

"We'll leave first thing next morning. We'll pass through the Earth Country until we reach Taki-Gakure, that's where our ways part." His voice was very calm and objective and yet it didn't fail to churn Sayuri up.

"The Earth Country?" She took her hand out of his and placed it on the floor to raise her upper body up and look right into Sasuke's face. "Just where are we now?"

"In the Land of Birds, close to Ame-Gakure…" His eyes hardened slightly as he said that. "Taki-Gakure is as close as our way takes us to the Fire-Country, you can leave from there…"

"… … and what about you?" Her eyes bored into his, ready to dig for the answers if necessary, but he wouldn't let her. He closed his eyes pensively and as he still hadn't opened them after a couple of seconds, Sayuri enquired in an almost pleading voice: "Can't you… can't you just come back to Konoha?"

She regretted having asked that as soon as the words had parted her lips, because she knew what he would answer to this, but hearing it from him would just make it all the more real and painful than it already was.

"That's impossible." He opened his eyes again and scrutinized her sad expression with a blank face. She lowered her head and sunk back down, nestling herself against his chest again, before she feebly raised her voice yet another time to venture a guess that had ghosted through her mind ever since their last encounter: "You said that Itachi was no longer a concern of yours – is that why you left Konoha? To fight him?"

He didn't give an answer to this, but she could feel how he nodded his head lightly, so she carried on: "And it's also why you came to Konoha in the first place, isn't it? – this had nothing to do with Orochimaru…"

This time there was no reaction from him, so Sayuri cocked her head up and stared through some messy streaks of her dark-violet hair into the gleaming black eyes of the Uchiha-heir.

"You really should sleep now." He sighed and started gently rubbing a hand over her back, probably hoping that it would have the same effect on her as it had on a baby.

"There is just one last thing…" She started and as he didn't show any sign of objection, she carried on, her voice barely louder than a whisper: "I wondered… I mean… I almost killed you… why did you let me win like that… why didn't you offer any resistance?" She just circumvented around the thing she really wanted to know, but just couldn't bring herself to asking it… to ask him why he had wanted her to kill him…

"You defeated me, that's all there is to it…" His voice had a final edge to it and he wrapped his arms tighter around her, apparently declaring this conversation as over, but Sayuri was of a different opinion.

"That's a lie and you know that…" She didn't see how Sasuke rolled his eyes, but she could at least hear the annoyed sigh he heaved.

"I have a theory about that…" She breathed these words, her voice barely audible, but the Uchiha heard her nevertheless.

"Is that so…" He neither lowered nor raised his voice at the end of his sentence so Sayuri couldn't tell whether it had been a question or a statement, but whispered nevertheless: "Uh-huh… but I'd rather not tell…"

Her eyes stared into the direction of her own futon on the other side of the room, but seemed to be entirely unfocussed and vacant. He scrutinized her for quite some time, weighing her words, until he finally stated in an emotionless voice: "That's unfortunate…"

She stiffened a little and moistened her lips. '_unfortunate_?' - maybe, but there was no way she could tell him that she thought that he felt purposeless, now that he had killed his brother… After he had spend all his life chasing after his odious brother and trying to become strong enough to defeat him, it must have felt as if all sense had leaked out of his life the very second his brother had held his last breath… That's why she thought he had asked her to kill him, because for him his life felt empty and not worth living, anymore… But how should she know what was really going on inside of him when his thoughts and feelings were better hidden than Pandora's box? Her assumptions were just superficial - based on how she thought she would feel, if she was in his position, but he was completely different from her… he was way stronger than that… So she was probably doing him wrong in assuming that he would just give up like that, but she wouldn't get the chance to find out because once they were in Taki-Gakure their ways would part and she would go back to Konoha, whereas he would go to who knows where with his new team - the one he had chosen for himself and that hadn't been forced on him like it had been the case with them…

…

…


	43. Incident

_I know it's__ a bit late, but a merry after christmas to all my readers and all the others too - even though those are rather unlikely to read this^^_

**43.**** Incident**

A thin layer of morning frost coated the forlorn rocks in the desolate wasteland area at the far northern end of the Earth Country and made the loam ground look grey, except for those spots, where a trail of fresh footprints had caused the tenuous white film to yield and returned its actual rufous colour to the earth. It was still early in the morning and there was neither sun nor stars in the sky, just a huge dark-grey mass of rain-laden clouds, bellying over the entire bleak desert scenery and the faraway mountain chain, which framed it. The cutting north-wind wailed eerily, making hollow, haunted noises, as it blew through the holes and cracks of the numerous large boulders, which stood imposing and yet daunting like some lonely giants in the open area, just the long black shadows they cast, enabling them to come in touch with one another.

_Dull_ - that was probably the best word to describe this scene with. There was not a single movement, neither deliberate nor accidental, as if time had forfeited its influence here and passed control to the land itself, condemning it to vegetate in a forsaken and forgotten existence.

Today it was different though. As the footprints already implied, the grave veil of secludedness had been lifted for a while, as the figures of five shinobi, looking terribly out of place, made their way through this dead scene, filling it with animation.

The sound of their voices rose into the icy air, along with the albescent puffs of steam, which they exuded every time they exhaled, but got swallowed up by the thick, oppressive atmosphere and just became as lost and forgotten as everything else in this land.

Four people in dark cloaks and with hair in colours that were usually nowhere to be found at this drab place, walked with hasty steps in the front, while one person, dressed in an equally dark cloak and with a likewise salient hair-colour slouched behind them, before he came to a full stop and sat down on the gelid, damp ground.

"Can we take a break here?" The man with the shiny, silvery-hair wailed, pulling out his drinking bottle and taking a good sip of the fresh water.

"Are you kidding?! We just got started – and stop drinking all our water, for god's sake!" The woman with the blazing red-hair reproached him, her face contorted into a terrifying grimace.

"Did you say something…?" Suigetsu cupped a hand around his ear and stared from one side to the other with a bored expression on his, in spite of the bitter cold, slightly sweaty face.

"…You…!" A vein was throbbing violently on Karin's forehead and she clenched her shaking fists tightly, in order to retain her self-control.

The other three members of their platoon just stood in a half circle around them, watching them with blank faces, not even voicing a word or complaint about their behaviour – with the grave expressions they wore, they could have also attended a funeral, without standing out of the mass of actual mourners…

As for Sayuri, she didn't even pick up anything of the accusations and insults the two bickerers were exchanging. Her gaze just remained rigidly fixed on the ground to their feet, merely seeing some blurry moving colours with her peripheral vision. Fringes of her torn and tattered cloak were dancing around her nearly bare legs - a memoir of the fight. They hadn't been able to find a new cloak in that short amount of time… She hadn't cared though; she didn't have time to think about something as extraneous as freezing right now, there were far more important things that occupied her…

53 hours had passed since she had fallen asleep next to Sasuke, in the small rectangular room they had stayed the night in.

Then 49 hours ago, she had woken up again. All alone in the dark and empty room and the spot he had been lying on had already been deprived of every trace of his body-heat, as if he hadn't been there at all. Maybe that was the case – maybe she had just dreamed all this… after all it was far too unreal to be true and yet she refused to believe it to be nothing more than a trick of her mind… and it's not like there wasn't any evidence that it had really happened – he had told her for example that they would head out to Taki-Gakure and that's exactly what they were doing right now, wasn't it? It's only a tiny thing, but as long as she hadn't unknowingly turned into a clairvoyant overnight, it was all the proof she needed…

They had barely exchanged a handful of words since then and time was running out. By the end of the day or at latest tomorrow morning, they should have reached Taki-Gakure and then she would have to say goodbye again…

Farewell – the last time, if that's what fate willed…

There were a lot of things she wanted to say to him, crucial things she was barely able to hold back and yet her mouth remained firmly shut. She couldn't talk to him with these people around. Especially not with Karin. It was so obvious that she had a crush on him; it seemed the only one who was unaware of that was Sasuke himself. How else could it be?

The woman, who had unlike the others, been a direct subordinate of Orochimaru and not some test-subject, had been very hostile and aggressive towards her from the very beginning, but Sayuri didn't take it personal any longer – she wasn't acting any different towards the rest of her team either - just a schizophrenic nutcase, who switched from violent bitch to man-eating vamp in the blink of an eye. Even though she remained in shrew-mode at least 99 percent of the time…

They were a weird group of people. After the first impression they had left, she had actually been scared of them, but that wasn't the case any longer… They all had some idiosyncrasies, which would make them look insane in most people's eyes - that was probably not even far fetched and yet they were actually an uncannily funny group of people. If she had met them sometime else, she would have probably enjoyed herself in their presence…

Juugo was a really sweet and kind-hearted person, if he wasn't throwing his killing fits at least… Suigetsu was a really comical guy, always running around with a smile on his face and making jokes all the time – though most of them were kind of retarded and actually not funny, but the way he told them forced at least a small smirk to built up in your face. The one thing that was even funnier than his jokes, was the way he always quarrelled with Karin – they both were extremely creative when it came to thinking of new ways to insult each other – they were way more fun to watch then most comedians were…

Nevertheless, Sayuri didn't even give them a chance to reach her laughing centre with their renewed fighting, this time. Her entire attention was focussed on the proceedings inside of her head. Every single gear in her brain seemed to be in motion, emitting an opaque fume from exertion, which rose into the air and became one with the heavy dark-grey clouds in the sky. Yet, despite all efforts she just couldn't think of what to do. In fact, she could think of a lot of things, but there just wasn't a single solution among those that proved to be satisfactory; most of the things weren't even related to her actual problem…

She couldn't go with him, but she couldn't let him go either. That's as far as she had gotten by now… The result of nearly 49 hours of thorough and intense contemplation… Something had to be wrong with the apparatus in her head; usually it was so active that she had no chance of paying attention to all the different thinking-products it spat out, like a defect ball-machine and now there was merely a yawning void, despite all the effort-indicating fuming…

"Hey you!"

Her eyes detached themselves from the small spot of dark, shadowy earth they had been fixed on and looked confusedly at the hand, which was waved in front of them.

"Are you there?" The hand belonged to Suigetsu, she noticed that now, apparently he had finished his break and the quarrel with his team-mate, because he was now standing right in front of her, looking at her as if she was the crazy one here…

"Hm?" Her eyes wandered to the other three people who were at the ready to head out again, just waiting for her. She probably deserved that stare after all, must have looked really weird how she just stood around and stared at the ground, while they had already started moving…

Without another word, she turned around and walked with lowered head towards the group of people in front of her, careful to avoid looking at them. This wasn't the time to look at someone, she didn't know why – probably because of her frustration – but she was sure that if she looked at someone now, or worse still, even had to talk to someone, she would start crying. She hadn't felt like crying lately, she had shed enough tears already, it was nothing more than a sudden urge that had smitten her just now – it would pass again quite soon, at least that's what she thought, so up to then she would just have to be careful not to do anything to trigger these emotions. Shouldn't be too hard - after all they rarely talked to her.

Didn't talk much among each other, either. Just Karin and Suigetsu – those two seemed to be connected by a strong bond of love-hate, just knowing them in a duo, made it hard to imagine them without the other one… They were like the two poles of a magnet – even though they were entirely different they still belonged together and in case they should ever meet, they would attract each other… A very queer relationship, but then they were also pretty queer people in general, so that was probably okay… Nothing remarkable.

They were close to Ame-Gakure, that's why the mood was so chastened. They had found out that the Rain-Country was where the headquarters of Akatsuki were located and since they didn't want to get concerned with them – at least no more than they already were – they gave it a wide-berth. The only one who seemed to disagree to this safety precautions was Suigetsu. Sayuri didn't really remember why, even though he must have told her the reason(s) numerous times already… Nothing really seemed to get through to her, as if she was caught in some kind of bubble, which skewed all images and sounds, allowing just a hollow reverberation of reality to reach her. No wonder her head didn't bother any longer to keep anything in mind – everything was just way too unreal to seem worth memorizing. She took another step forward, the bubble moving along with her. Muffled noises, blurred vision – even her steps seemed cushioned… Unbelievable just how much influence your mind could have on your entire physical condition, not to speak of your mental one…

She wouldn't have thought it to be this way… this whole situation… Even after Sasuke had left them the first time to join Orochimaru, they knew he had done it for a single purpose and that was his revenge. They had been sure then, that once he had attained it, he would come back on his own. The only reason why they had tried to bring him back, despite being sure of his return, was because they had been worried about him. They had been worried that Orochimaru would take over his body and then there would be nothing left of him anymore – nothing but an empty shell and that just wouldn't have been enough for them. Furthermore, they had also doubted that he could kill Itachi – the child prodigy of the Uchiha-clan – all by himself, so they had wanted to support him, everything just to know he was safe. But now he wasn't with Orochimaru anymore and Itachi was apparently dead and yet he didn't plan to return. He had just thwarted their plans and had even made sure they weren't feasible any longer. This time he couldn't simply return to Konoha again and carry on living as if nothing had happened… his repeated disappearance had made it impossible… He had even managed to shake the actually implicit trust of his friends, something you shouldn't have thought possible, after they had closed their eyes to more or less everything he had done in the past couple of years and had just told themselves that he's had good reasons for being the way he was and doing the things he did… It was easier this way; just turning blind to the unpleasant facts and hoping that everything would sort itself out. That wasn't how reality worked though, it was rarely ever that simple…

A sudden splash of water ripped her out of her thoughts. Karin and Suigetsu had been quarrelling again and it had ended the way it usually did: Karin had hit him, Suigetsu's head had turned to water and then the liquefied remains of his head had splashed into her face - okay, that part didn't happen too frequently…

With a startled expression, Sayuri led a hand to her face and wiped the ice-cold water from it, which turned her nose and cheeks a pale red. Despite the hypothermia, her skin felt like it was burning and even though she did register the searing pain, it still didn't seem real to her, so she didn't pay any attention to it.

"You're okay?" Juugo, who was standing next to her, had bowed down slightly to look into her face; again that worried expression visible in his features.

"Uh-huh." She nodded, casting her eyes to the ground, to avoid his gaze. He was a nice guy, she knew that now. That's why he was worried about her, even though he didn't even know her, just because he was a kind and caring person: it was really sad that he was cursed with the jûin that made him turn into a crazy murderer against his will – he was about the last person to deserve something like that…

Still with an anxious face, he looked back up to the rest of his team, which had started moving again, they couldn't afford loosing any more time, because they didn't plan on spending the night at this grim and unwelcoming place. So they took up their journey again and walked through this never ending scenery of icy grounds and lonely rocks, until they came across the first little plants somewhat in the afternoon. It were just some sorts of simple grasses and they were withered and dead, but still it was a pleasant change to no living organisms at all.

They were good in time, just about eight more hours and they would reach Taki-Gakure. Hardly any time left to find a solution to her problem. She needed to talk to him, but that was simply impossible. On the one hand, they were surrounded by his new team so there was no privacy… She could ask to have a word with him alone, but even in the unlikely case they would let her, she wouldn't know what to tell him… There was nothing she could say that she hadn't said before; she had asked him to come back and he had refused - that was it… He was obstinate… he wouldn't change his mind just like that and it's not like he could… It was too late now and there was nothing any of them could do to change that… At least she could bring back some good news to the Fire Country and especially to Naruto and Sakura…

If they were worried about her disappearance? – Probably… but not only because of her, but more likely because of the fact, that she had told her team that she had sensed something and wanted to check on it… After the time-limit was over they must have gone and searched for her, but had only found a deserted battlefield – something that must have put them on red alert yet again, as if they hadn't been on red alert before… The situation within the Fire Country was now probably even more strained than it had been anyhow – and that for nothing. The whole last month they had been worried for nothing – there has never been a direct threat to the Land of Fire, at least not where they had assumed it to be… She would have to tell them… maybe if they knew that Sasuke had never been a menace to the Hidden Leave Village, they would rethink their view of him and give him a third chance after all… even though she doubted that – it was too late for him.

Engaged in her thoughts, Sayuri hadn't even noticed that they had entered a dark pine forest, until the typical earthy scent of wood and especially the prominent scent of pine-resin invaded her nostrils. The huge trees had straight, narrow trunks, with hardly any branches on the lower part of the bole, so it was easy to walk through this wood despite the high density of the coniferous trees. However the feathery green of their crowns, didn't let any light break through the dense foliage, so they were once again surrounded by a gloomy and oppressive atmosphere. Maybe it was a bad sign that their whole journey took them through these depressive and sinister places - either that or her own distraught condition shadowed her entire perception, making her see omens and threats where there weren't any… She was sure no clairvoyant but at least she used to be very sensitive to foreboding; she used to be a lot of things, but right now she seemed unable to grasp her personality any longer. Being a rather self-analytic person as she was, she always had a fairly good idea about why she was feeling or thinking or behaving the way she did, however now the once so solid and conceivable shape of her disposition, seemed to turn into a mercury-like substance, which just slipped through her fingers - past her comprehension - whenever she tried to grip for it and she didn't like this insecure feeling at all… it felt like being at the mercy of her own abysmal, inscrutable, black-holish mind, that was trying to suck her up just like everything else – the imaginary bubble surrounding her was the best proof of that…

"You're very impolite, do you know that?"

Sayuri blinked in puzzlement, as she nearly bumped into the white-haired man, who stood with his arms crossed and a rather impatient look on his face right in front of her, blocking her path.

"I'm sorry… what did you say?" Her question just received an irritated sigh along with some eye-rolling, before Suigetsu cleared the way again and motioned her to carry on walking. As she did, he started strolling next to her and shot a curious look into her direction: "Say… is there something wrong with your ears, or do you have some kind of concentration issue?" A sly grin flashed over his face, as he scrutinized the girl next to him, waiting for her response.

"Don't know… maybe…" She replied meekly, the shortness and vagueness of her statement causing the Houzuki to roll his eyes anew.

"Lack of opinion as well, huh?" He teased her, hoping to finally get some more accurate answers from her, but she disappointed him.

"Well… if you say so…" She turned her head away from him, fixing her eyes on the backs of the people, who were walking a good distance in front of them.

"Tze… if I say so…? – You're really funny, you know that?" He chuckled, displaying a row of sharp white teeth while doing so. "Don't you want to speak up for yourself or are you just unable to do so?"

"Don't know… just don't feel like it…" This statement earned her another amused chuckle from the silver-haired man, almost causing him to spit out the water again, he had just sipped out of his drinking bottle. "I still can't believe it…" He shook his head, with closed eyes, while a broad sneer rose on his face.

Side-glancing, Sayuri perceived how he opened his purple eyes again and couldn't help but to notice the mischievous shimmer in them, causing a frown to corrugate her brow.

"What…?" She enquired sceptically, still keeping her eyes fixed on the man next to her.

"Well, well… curious… aren't you? Maybe you're not entirely apathetic after all…" He grinned sneakily, before his eyes turned sharp again and scrutinized her closely, until they came across the still present frown on Sayuri's face, causing him to shake his head again and finally explain: "I still don't believe that you have been able to beat Sasuke up like that… I mean look at you…" He gesticulated with his arms in front of her, the broad grin never leaving his face. "So… is it true?"

"…"

No answer on her part… she just kept staring ahead, careful to avoid his gaze, but he didn't give her much of a chance, as he suddenly jumped in front of her and blocked her way again.

"I'm talking to you!" His voice was a bit harder now, but he was nevertheless smiling like a Cheshire Cat. "So, how did you do it?"

"I didn't really do much, it just so happened…" She stopped and looked up at him through her big, blue eyes, hoping he would just stop asking her all these things already…

"It just so happened…? You nearly killed Uchiha Sasuke because it just so happened?" He cast a disbelieving glance at her, slightly annoyed about having to worm everything out of her…

"Hm…" She merely shrugged and walked past Suigetsu, who then carried on walking as well, not letting her get away that easily.

"Have you ever heard of something like grammar by any chance?" He frowned about her taciturn-manner, receiving a puzzled glance from the violet-haired girl. "It's a really useful thing you know… it says for example that sentences consist of something which is usually known as '_words'_ and not just some weird sounds - so how about trying to answer in whole sentences, huh?"

"There is nothing to say…" She turned her eyes down, the mentioning of the fight throwing her back to memory lane, for the who knows how maniest time that day.

"…HelloOo… Spacing out again?" Once again, she was brought back to reality by a hand that was being waved in front of her face.

"Huh?" She looked up again, causing Suigetsu to shake his head in irritation.

"Geez… you really do have some concentration issues… Say - what is it with you girls that you are either barely able to open your mouth or talk your head off incessantly?" His eyes switched from her to the red-haired girl ahead of them, who strangely enough had to sneeze that very second.

His grin grew wider as he noticed that, but then he turned back to the violet-haired girl next to him, who wore a pensive expression on her face.

"It's not like you guys were any different…" She mused, her gaze fixed on the two men in front of them. "_You_ talk way too much and _they_ talk way too little…"

"Well, well, what do you know…" He chuckled deviously, while he crossed his arms behind the back of his head: "Looks like you do have an opinion after all…"

Sayuri rolled her eyes and sighed in annoyance. She still didn't feel like talking, but it's not like he was giving her much of a choice – even if she wouldn't answer him, he would probably carry on chewing her ears off nevertheless…

"Still waters run deep, right?" The Houzuki grinned at her with an ambiguous and somewhat mischievous expression on his face. "Maybe there is more to you than meets the eye…"

Once again he let his eyes wander up and down the girl next to him, who then demonstratively turned her head away and increased her pace to catch up with the others again. Maybe he would hold back when the others were in earshot again, or he would turn his attention to Karin again - she would be fine with anything if only she could have some peace and quiet…

Still trying to engage her in a conversation, Suigetsu adapted to her pace at once and now they were both just a couple of steps away from the others and it still didn't seem likely that he would stop talking anytime soon. He seemed to be really livening up with having someone apart from his team to talk to, even if the conversation was rather one-sided… he was even so distracted, that he didn't notice that the red-haired woman in front of him had stopped walking all of a sudden and ran straight into her.

"Ouch! These were my feet you clumsy idiot!" She groused furiously, while she started to jump first on her right and then on her left leg, to get rid of the pain.

"What is it Karin?" Sasuke, who had been watching the scampering woman with a blank face, enquired eventually, causing her to keep still at once.

"How should I know? I can't concentrate like that - tell that fishhead to stay away from me and I'll tell you!" Karin grumbled sourly, while she shot a deadly glare towards one of the two least favourite members of her team.

"Don't blame others for your shortcomings, scarecrow…" Suigetsu grumbled in a low voice and gnashed his teeth.

"Tze – talking about shortcomings –"

"Karin." She was interrupted by the leader of their platoon, who shot her an impatient glare, so she still grumbled something under her breath, before she closed her eyes and pressed both her forefingers together. After a couple of seconds, she opened her amaranth eyes again and the shocked expression in them was hard not to see.

"That is…" She stammered, but left her sentence unfinished, at a loss of words to describe what she had just sensed.

"Oh c'mon – don't you go mute, too…" Suigetsu rolled his eyes dramatically, as he watched his horrified team-mate, who didn't even react to his statement, what surprised and maybe even worried him a little…

"Karin." Sasuke addressed her again, a bit louder now and finally broke through to her.

She shook her head a little and then turned it to the side in an almost mechanical manner, until her gaze locked with that of her team-leader.

"There is a fight… I've never felt such a chakra before - it is so… so…" She started uneasily, again not finding the words to express what she meant.

"So… what?" The white-haired man enquired sceptically and crossed his arms in front of his chest, not seeing what gave her that much trouble.

"So… enormous! No ordinary human can have that much chakra… it's way too powerful and its getting even stronger!" Her scarlet eyes grew wide as she said that and remained fixed on the Uchiha, who now wore a pensive expression on his face.

"Where are they?" He asked her after a couple of seconds, entirely calm in spite of the bad news.

"Right on the way we had planned to take – not even an hour away from here…"

As if to confirm her statement, there was suddenly a dull, cracking sound, directly followed by some other noise, sounding almost like a rockslide, but the sudden quaver that ran through the ground reminded rather of an earthquake.

"An hour away?" Juugo asked, looking about as unsettled as the rest of them, too.

"At normal pace - no doubt about that… this chakra… I think I've sensed it before…." Karin pondered, while she ran a hand through her blazing red hair. This chakra was somehow familiar to her, but then there was no way that she would have forgotten it, so what was going on here?

"So… we'll go check on it?" Suigetsu asked with a curious grin on his face, it was pretty obvious just how much he would like to do so.

"… We're not planning on getting unnecessarily involved in any fights – especially not if they are as grave as Karin implied." Sasuke slightly pointed his head towards the red haired kunoichi, who nodded in agreement, still having goose-bumps on her entire body. "So we'll have to accept a detour."

"A detour? That's lame – don't you wanna know what's going on there?" Suigetsu queried with the same nosy grin on his lips, which vanished from his face pretty soon though, since another loud bang of an ear-splitting quality arose, causing the five shinobi to cringe and hunch their shoulders up reflexively.

"This is Naruto!" Sayuri gasped suddenly, as she recognized the chakra. "We need to help him!"

Without even waiting for a response, she dashed into the direction the massive chakra and the loud noise were coming from, not even hearing Juugo's meek attempts of holding her back.

"And off she goes…" Suigetsu stared a little dumbfounded at the spot where the violet-haired girl had been standing just a couple of seconds ago, before he turned to the Uchiha, who still wore a blank expression on his face. "We'll go there now?"

Before the Uchiha even had a chance of answering, Karin stepped in and replied on his behalf: "Like hell we will! We're not going for any unnecessary fights – you heard that and if _she_ doesn't go with that that's her thing! – Right Sasuke?" Her voice became unusually sweet at that last part of her rant and she looked with flushed cheeks and big eyes at the raven-haired man, but again he didn't get to answer, because Suigetsu intervened again.

"Don't listen to her! I know that you can't square it with your conscience to have her run into her certain death – you're a leave ninja after all, right?" Suigetsu sneered slyly, while he watched a light frown appear on Sasuke's forehead.

Karin was grinding her teeth angrily and kept her fist clenched in tight, though shaking balls, until a sudden idea crossed her mind and she relaxed again. "Oh you know what, he is right…."

The Houzuki shot a perplexed look into her direction and watched her draw closer to Sasuke, while she took off her glasses and murmured: "We really can't let her go on her own, weak and clumsy as she is, she would probably stumble right into danger, so it would be best if Suigetsu and Juugo go looking for her while we check out the adjacent regions and plan a new root we can take… What do you think Sa-su-ke…?" She purred his name in a lewd-manner while she gripped for his arm and tried to pull him into the other direction.

"Let go." He ordered in a blank voice, entirely unimpressed by her obvious advances, while Suigetsu just rolled his eyes and wore a rather sullen look on his face, whereas Juugo didn't look much different than he usually did.

"So what will we do?" Suigetsu enquired for yet another time and now three pairs of questioning eyes were turned towards Sasuke, who just heaved a weary sigh and looked up as another noisy bang was heard and the earth quavered again.

While they were still engaged in their decision-making, Sayuri got ever nearer to the source of the din, completely forgetting about all her former worries, as they were overshadowed by the question, with whom Naruto could possibly be fighting that he would be forced to use _that_ kind of power…

About twenty minutes later the first beams of light finally broke through the leaf canopy, as the forest became sparser and sparser. Another roaring sound was heard and the earth shook so violently this time, that Sayuri lost her balance and fell to the ground.

She was almost there now.

As soon as the quaking had stopped, she struggled to her feet again and kept on running without a second of hesitation, until even the last trees came to an abrupt end and a huge crater came into view. Sayuri's eyes widened as she nearly stumbled again, but could catch herself just in time, before she came past the last trees in the line and stopped at the edge of the deep crater.

"Naruto!" She called out in shock, as her alarmed eyes roamed over the sheer havoc in front of her.

…

…


	44. Flashback

**44****. Flashback**

_**9 weeks ago **_

_**Hospital, Konoha-Gakure**_

It was in the middle of the night, when a raven-haired man finally woke up after having spent about five days in coma. He didn't open his eyes, or give any other sign that would indicate that he was awake – even in his weakened state he could feel the suppressed chakra of another ninja, who was in the room with him. Quite frankly he didn't even know where he was, not yet at least, but the incessant beeping of some electrical gadget or another and the pungent smell of disinfectants, soon gave him a fairly good idea of where he had to be. Especially as the dizziness started to lift from his mind and he was able to recall the past events again.

He had been fighting that Akatsuki – that blonde one – it had been a rather tough fight, but he had nevertheless held the leading position all the time. He would have easily beaten him and then asked him about everything concerning Itachi - if he hadn't decided to thwart his plans at least…

He had fled, or in his words, had only just received some unpostponable orders from his leader and had therefore been forced to leave… He had tried to follow him, but in the air, the advantages had been on his side, so he had lost trace of him quite soon. Not even Karin had been able to locate his exact position after that, but she could at least give them a vague direction and that was leading them into the regions surrounding Konoha – the place where their plans would have taken them anyway… Considering how wounded he had been, they had proposed to take a break, before they would resume their search, but he had refused. That Akatsuki had been as close as they had gotten to Itachi by then; they couldn't afford to waste any time if they wanted to catch up to him.

Once they had crossed the borders to the Fire Country, they had scattered and he had taken the mountain forest in the west of Konoha. That's where he had sensed someone's presence. Keeping his guard up, he had walked towards the cliff at the edge of the forest, mindful to stay in the cover of the brown and orange leaved trees and then he had seen her. His former team-mate had been standing right at the mountain slope, only about two steps separating her from the deep chasm and it seemed as if she was about to cover what little distance there was.

Concealed by the pattering of the raindrops, which poured out of the dark grey clouds and hit on the brittle leaves and the stony ground, his steps had remained unheard by the girl in front of him, so he had addressed her in order to draw her attention to him. He still didn't understand what had moved her to do what she had meant to do and he didn't understand why he had helped her, even though he had been in a bad condition himself and had, as he had pointed out earlier, no time to lose. Why had he of all people acted against his own orders? – It was too late now, he was back in Konoha and he would have to make the best of this situation…

"Kurohyou?" The door was opened quietly, but the speaker didn't enter the room. "You have a moment?" Sasuke could feel how the eyes of the man, who was apparently supposed to keep watch on him, travelled into his direction and scrutinized him closely, before he sighed quietly and got up to leave the room.

Once the door clicked shut, Sasuke's coal black eyes fluttered open and he was affirmed in his former assumption of being in a hospital. His gaze travelled towards the window, realizing that one of the upper windows was tilted out slightly – not that it would help him… It was dark outside and he could perceive the familiar skyline of night-time Konoha, with the few illuminated windows in the numerous buildings and the black silhouettes of the town-wall and treetops that surrounded the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He didn't waste much time on roaming his eyes over the scenery of his former home or on succumbing to any nostalgic feelings, but turned his head to the door on the other side of the small room, when he perceived a fluttering sound and turned his head back to the windows, seeing a small bird which in that moment dropped in through the half-open windowpane. As soon as it was inside, it flew straight towards Sasuke and landed on his blanket.

Without wasting much time, since he feared that his sentry would come back any second, the Uchiha gripped for the tiny shred of paper, the brown bird was carrying in one of his claws and unfolded it.

-----

' **? '**

-----

A question mark – that was all there was on the tiny scrap of paper. Even if someone had intercepted the message, he wouldn't know what to make of it… However Sasuke knew it at once: It was a message by his team, the question mark meaning something like:

'_Shall we come and get you?'_

Casting another glance at the still closed door, Sasuke bent down to the bird and murmured in a low, almost inaudible voice:

"Stay put. We'll adapt to the situation and stick to our old plans."

After that, the bird took wing again and fluttered, with quite some problems, out of the window again.

How useful it was to have someone in your team who could talk to animals, it made communicating really easy…

The small song-thrush had only just vanished, as the sentry came back in again, it was a different one, this time, but it didn't matter, since when he entered the room, he only found the sleeping or maybe even comatose figure of the young Uchiha-heir.

Sasuke was sure that everything had gone unnoticed, so now he would have to think about what to do next, before they would realize that he was awake and interrogate him and he was sure that they would do that… He had been very lucky that the Konoha-nins had been so careless as to leave him alone, he just hoped that his message would reach his team the way he had intended it to do…

…

…

_**8 weeks ago**_

_**Uchiha mansion, Konoha-Gakure**_

Things were getting ever easier.

As he had still been sharing a room with Naruto, he's always had to be very careful and attentive, when he planned on carrying out one of his nightly excursions, even though he was sure that it was a waste of effort, since it was nearly impossible to wake the Uzumaki up, once he had fallen into his deathlike and yet very animate sleep. Now, with Sayuri as a room-mate, it was even easier.

At first he's had some slight concerns and feared that he would have to pass on his trips for as long as he was sharing a room with her, but once he had recognized just how ill she was, he realized that luck was with him after all…

Sitting on his bed, he watched her closely as she was tossing and turning on her futon, apparently haunted by some vivid nightmares – maybe she wasn't that fast asleep after all…

A muted squeak parted her lips and she suddenly rose from her pillows, breathing heavily and casting a perplexed look through the room – if she was always having such a light sleep, maybe things wouldn't be as simple as he had thought…

She convinced him of the contrary though; she was awake all right, but you couldn't really say that she was conscious and she fell asleep again just a few seconds later, too. Besides she really did look bad – it was obvious that she was seriously ill. So after he took care of her, just enough to make sure she would live through the night and after he was convinced that she really was sound asleep this time, Sasuke opened the window and vanished in the darkness.

They met at their usual spot, just like every three days – somewhere in the huge, sprawling sea of brown-orange trees, surrounding Konoha, to review their situation. When he arrived, Karin and Suigetsu were already waiting for him, for quite a while apparently; at least that's what their slightly angry and impatient expressions told him.

Without greeting them or apologizing for his retard, Sasuke went straight to business: "Anything new?" He enquired in a matter of fact voice, letting his eyes wander from one of the two shinobi to the other.

"Oh, we're fine, thanks for asking – and how about you?" Suigetsu groaned with a forced grin on his face, but was more or less ignored by everyone.

"Nothing here…" Karin sighed before she added: "Juugo went with that blonde guy to keep watch on him… I hope he'll manage his task…" She looked a little sceptical as she said that, but Sasuke just nodded and moved his eyes to the man with the silvery hair, as he sighed dramatically.

"Are you sure they'll come here?" The Houzuki enquired with a yawn, unable to hide the bored expression on his face.

"They've come for him before, so we'll have to assume that they'll come here again… it's the only clue we have, now that we lost trace of that Akatsuki…" Sasuke explained in a low voice and narrowed his eyes as Suigetsu once again raised his voice to utter another complaint: "Tze… you're the one with the easy task: You're living in that huge mansion, get warm food everyday and even have time for training, while we have to stay out here in the damn cold, without even having a roof over our heads and there is no trace of any good food either…"

"Oh stop whining you pansy!" Karin groused, with an irritated grimace on her face. "You only just went to that restaurant, and nearly bathed in your silly yoghurt! You are sure in no danger of starving!"

"Eh… I have no idea what that woman is talking about…" He stuck out his tongue and scratched his head sheepishly.

"Then that's it… Just another thing – contact me once Juugo gets back – there is something I have to talk to him about…" The Uchiha earned some consenting and yet somehow sceptical nods after this statement and turned around, ready to take up his position in Konoha again.

…

…

_**5 weeks ago**_

_**Western forest, Fire Country**_

After having run – or rather jumped through the forest for hardly more than fifteen minutes, the three equally dark-cloaked men came to a halt in front of a small wooden hut, situated on a small plateau, from where you had a good view over the nocturnal Konoha, which was merely illuminated by a few street lanterns and partly also by the light coming from behind a few windows, even though that were just some rare exceptions – on a whole it had the seeming as if the Village Hidden in the Leaves had gone to sleep already.

Led by a silver-haired man, the small group entered the tiny wooden hut, where they were already eagerly awaited by a woman with blazing red hair and thick rimmed glasses.

"Sasuke! It's about high time you showed up –" Karin snapped before an unintended smile started to spread on her face and she ran towards the raven-haired man as if she wanted to jump right into his arms, however he didn't pay any attention to her and walked ahead, looking around the small room, before he asked: "Where's the captive?"

The smile on her face faded slightly due to this cold welcoming, but she recovered herself pretty quickly, since she was used to his being an emotional block of ice; in fact his unattainable demeanour made him all the more attractive in her eyes…

"He lies over there." She laxly pointed to the end of the room, where you could see a pair of legs peep out from behind a table. "He is still unconscious, but he should wake up soon, so just take a seat."

"Tze – and what about us?" Suigetsu snapped at the red-haired woman, since her invitation to sit down had clearly been directed solely at the Uchiha-heir – she hadn't even bothered to waste a single glance at them yet.

"What do I care? Do whatever you want, like get lost for example…" She snapped back, before she directed her entire attention to the Uchiha again.

"Tell me everything that happened during my absence." He ordered, as he finally detached his eyes from their captive and seated himself on the chair Karin had pointed at.

"Uh – well you missed out a lot…" Suigetsu grinned secretively and took a chair, placing it under Karin's disapproving eyes right next to the one she was sitting on, moving even closer to the woman as he already was, just to tease her a little. You could clearly see how much being close to the Houzuki bothered her, since she couldn't help but to wrinkle her nose when she smelled his distasteful, not to say nasty chakra, but she tried her best to ignore it and started bringing Sasuke up to date.

"Just a couple of days after you left, there has been an Akatsuki sighting in the Land of Thunder. Konoha has placed a lot of ANBU to guard their borders, which made moving in that territory pretty difficult, but I nevertheless managed to shadow their tracking squad and stole all the information they'd been able to attain from them." Karin stated proudly, leaving a break after her report, hoping that it would be filled with some complimenting or appreciating words by the clan-heir, however since nothing of that happened she carried on again, especially as the man next to her cleared his throat impatiently and Sasuke's glance also told her not to waste any more time: "Anyway – from what those Konoha-nins said, one of them was that Deidara again and the other one some newcomer - I didn't see them personally though, therefore I couldn't question them on Itachi's whereabouts, but –" She cut off, as she was interrupted by Suigetsu's roaring laughter.

"What?!" Karin enquired in a dangerously calm voice, while she looked at the silver-haired man out of the corner of her gleaming red eyes.

"Oh nothing, nothing…" He put her off, still shaking with laughter, before he explained: "I just imagined how you walk towards the big bad Akatsuki and ask them where Itachi is…Hehe, too funny…"

"Tze, shut up sharkboy! I don't think you're in any position to make fun of anyone – you didn't do anything at all, right? I mean I was the one to find out about the Akatsuki sighting. I was the one to tail the Konoha-nins and gather the information from them. And I was also the one to find the Akatsuki spy among the hundreds of thousand inhabitants of Konoha and bring him here." She counted all her achievements on her fingers, while Suigetsu just rolled his eyes, annoyed by Karin's boastful demeanour.

"Yeah and you've also been the one who almost blew our cover – and don't give me that, '_they've been searching for another red-haired woman' crap_" Suigetsu cut her off, before she could interrupt him, however instead of a verbal interruption, she stroked out and hit him in the face, causing his head to turn to water.

"Cut it out, now!" Sasuke reprimanded them, before he turned to the red-haired woman again: "Karin, are you sure that this is the spy Itachi has infiltrated into Konoha?"

"Of course I am!" The red-head shouted, indignant that Sasuke apparently doubted her abilities. "As I knew whom I had to check – I could even detect some slight, almost imperceptible chakra traces on him that were faintly reminiscent of yours…" She stopped short, as she noticed how Sasuke's eyes hardened, due to that direct comparison with his loathed brother and blushed a little; since making him angry was about the last thing she had intended to do, even though she would never admit that…

"Oh… you're worried about your position with that blonde weirdo, huh?" Suigetsu asked with a cheeky grin on his face, as soon as his head had consolidated again. "I still don't understand why Akatsuki should be after someone like him – the only thing that's special about him is that thanks to his shadow clones he's able to bug his entire village simultaneously…"

"Tze – you have no idea…" Karin shook her head and turned with a haughty expression towards the Houzuki: "If you were a bit more of a skilled shinobi, you'd have realized that he has got some special chakra…"

"So what? Doesn't improve his abilities though – and can't make up for his annoying character either…" Suigetsu proclaimed, shrugging his shoulders in a nonchalant manner, while Karin merely rolled her eyes in response.

"We know that the Akatsuki have been after him before and Konoha does its best to keep him away from them –" Sasuke explained and looked to the side as Juugo finally decided to participate in their conversation: "So that's why they sent you to Yuki-Gakure…"

The Uchiha nodded in approval and carried on: "They've kept a low profile in the last years, but now that they are on the move again, we have to assume that they'll come back for him again…"

"I know, I know…" Suigetsu sighed and turned his head backwards, as he heard their captive let out a suffering moan. "Looks like the interrogation is about to start soon…" He grinned and got up from his chair, stretching his muscles leisurely. "And it's about time… I mean let's assume the highly unlikely case that Karin has made a mistake-" His grin grew mockingly wide as he perceived from the corner of his eyes how an artery on Karin's forehead started throbbing dangerously. "The longer you stay away, the more likely they are about to notice your absence and then it will be hard to resume your position with the blonde nutcase and the rest of your former wimp-team."

"Guess it's too late for that…" Karin implied, as she opened her eyes again, after having concentrated on detecting the chakra of Sasuke's roommates. "There are almost 400 shadow clones of that blonde freak running through the entire village – I bet they are searching for you already!"

"Hn." The Uchiha merely grunted and rose from his chair, walking towards their unfortunate captive that opened his eyes that very moment.

…

…

_**2 **__** weeks ago**_

_**Woodland region**__**, Land of Fire**_

A loud, dull clash was heard, followed by yet another one and some occasional curses, even though they were mainly drowned out by some crumbling sounds.

Already panting heavily, Suigetsu mobilized his last strength and rushed towards his opponent, who looked entirely unaffected by their fight. Some parts of the old, brittle roof came off under his feet and rolled over the remaining shingles only to fall down into the dark green pine forest, surrounding the long building the four people were standing on.

The Decapitator's knife again crushed with a loud thud against the broad, bandaged sword of Kisame, the Samehada. Even though that one didn't seem to have any sharp edges, it nevertheless resisted Suigetsu's attack and a few seconds later he was hurled backwards and landed with a loud crash, which made you fear for the roofs stability, in front of the feet of his two team-mates.

Karin wore an impatient look on her face and rolled her eyes, as she perceived how the white haired man struggled to his feet anew and prepared for another one of his fruitless attacks that was already predestined to come off the same way as the previous ones, as well.

"Damn, cut it out already!" She groused and crossed her arms in front of her chest, receiving only some weird mumbling that was probably meant to be an insult or something for a reply. An annoyed grimace flashed over her face and she bit on her bottom lip in anger, before she again focused her attention on the run of Sasuke's battle, who was only a couple of miles away, finally fighting his loathed brother…

"What the-?!" Her eyes widened suddenly and now she also managed to wake Juugo out of his apathetic phase and catch his attention.

"Is something with Sasuke?" The tall, auburn-haired man asked in his usual calm, but nevertheless slightly anxious voice, before his reddish eyes flickered to the side as he noticed that Suigetsu and Kisame had frozen in their movement, which was only favourable for Suigetsu as he clearly looked like he was done for already…

"I can't sense it anymore!" The red-haired woman exclaimed, her face looking entirely churned up and after her statement this emotion also infected the faces of the people surrounding her.

"You mean-" Suigetsu panted, not even able to finish his statement - on the one hand because of exhaustion and on the other, because his female team-mate just wouldn't let him.

"He killed him!" She started up, unaware of the distraught expression that took over Juugo's features before she added: "Sasuke killed him!"

"What?" Suigetsu looked up in surprise, as he had already lowered his head to hold a minute of silence for their team-leader, whom he had assumed to have lost and now it was Kisame to look a little startled, but he recovered himself quite soon again.

"You mean Itachi is dead…? Who would have thought…" He murmured in his usual, kind of funny voice and earned a quiet, but nevertheless somewhat conceited nod by the red-haired woman. "What a shame…" He muttered and shouldered his sword. "This means you can pass now…" He shook his head again in disbelief before he turned around and walked, or rather jumped off, ignoring Suigetsu's meek attempts to hold him back.

As soon as the blue-skinned nuke-nin had left their visual field, the three members of Team Hebi nodded at each other and then took off into the direction Sasuke had taken earlier on.

Fifteen minutes later they came to a spot where the thick pine forest merged into a less dense and due to the season mostly leafless deciduous forest.

"What is this?" Juugo enquired and pointed to the front, where a weirdly flickering black light loomed on the horizon.

"This looks like… fire…?" Karin stated questioningly and kept her eyes fixed to the front, slightly alarmed as the flames where right at the point where Sasuke's fight had taken place and his chakra was getting ever weaker; they really had to hurry.

"This must be Amaterasu! Sasuke told me about it once… the all consuming and inextinguishable black flames…" Suigetsu murmured pensively and kept his eyes fixed on the skyline.

"He's not alone!" Karin suddenly exclaimed and caused two pairs of eyes to turn into her direction.

"What?" Juugo and Suigetsu called out simultaneously and looked at Karin's intent face.

"There's someone else… but he doesn't seem to move… We should hurry nevertheless!" She increased her speed after that and jumped from tree to tree directly followed by her two team-mates.

Another five minutes had passed, when they finally reached the remnants of the old Uchiha hideout. Climbing over some debris and rock fragments that had probably once been the walls and ceiling of this ruin, Karin led the way to the place where she could sense Sasuke's slowly fading chakra.

"What about that other one?" Suigetsu enquired in a shushed voice, before his eyes widened slightly as Sasuke's unconscious and blood bathed figure came into view, same as that of his doubtlessly dead brother too, lying right next to him.

"He's still at the same place…somewhat back there…" She turned her head around and nodded to another pile of rocks, but there wasn't anyone to be seen there.

"Doesn't matter." Juugo stated suddenly and walked towards his badly injured team-mate. "Sasuke comes first – we can't risk any confrontations with him being like this…" He murmured and bowed down to pick the Uchiha up. Suigetsu had already opened his mouth to interject, but Karin was faster and agreed with the auburn haired man, all the time casting some nervous looks into the direction she sensed the chakra in.

Completely ignoring the pout that spread on Suigetsu's face, Karin and Juugo, who was now carrying their team-leader piggyback, started leaving, wanting to bring as much space between themselves and this place as possible, before they would start treating Sasuke's injuries.

"Pfft…" Suigetsu groused and let his eyes wander slowly across the entire battlefield again, before he turned around and followed after the rest of his team.

As soon as they were gone, a plant-like person, wearing a black cloak with red clouds on it, grew out of the ground, right at Itachi's feet. One half of his face was white and the other one black and there were two weird, leaf-like extensions at either side of his head, reminding a little of those of a venus-flytrap.

"Interesting…" He murmured and let his gaze roam over the lifeless body of the fellow Akatsuki. "Interesting, indeed…" He confirmed his own statement in a slightly different sounding voice, before he groped for the corpse in front of him and vanished in the ground again.

…

…

_**5 days ago**_

_**Border to the Fire Country**_

A group of three young genin was sprinting through the woods at the eastern end of the River-Country. After having run as fast as they could and without taking any breaks for the last one and a half hours, they were already quite breathless, but the possible danger, lying behind them, kept them going nevertheless. They were taking their first solo-mission (if you could call it like that) very serious and didn't plan on screwing up.

"We… We are… almost there…" Ryuu uttered between some heavy gasps, slowly losing his position in the front of their little procession.

"Uh-huh…" Shin replied, too exhausted to form any coherent or even understandable sentences.

Usually running for a few hours wouldn't be that much of a problem for them – wouldn't be pleasant either, but at least manageable – but they were running with as much speed as they could bring up and seeing as they were exhausted from their rather tough day anyway, they had just about reached their limits by now. Still they were gritting their teeth and tried to block out all physical exhaustion by focussing on their destination.

Mind over matter…

Didn't really work though – Emi, who had formed the rear of their group the entire time, suddenly lost her consciousness and fell to the ground with a loud thud. Alarmed by the sound, the two boys turned around and drew their kunais at once, afraid that their team-mate had been attacked. So they cautiously closed up to her and Ryuu bent down to the senseless girl, while Shin still stood guard and watched their surroundings closely. The brown-haired boy slapped the young girl's face lightly and sighed with relief as she reacted and slowly cast her eyes open.

"Emi – you're okay?" He asked, still with an anxious touch in his voice and helped the girl to sit up by supporting her back.

"I… I need a break…" She panted and pressed her eyes shut to fight the dizziness that rolled over her as soon as she was sitting.

Shin looked around, still afraid of being attacked, now that they weren't on the move any longer. However his worries turned out to have been pointless, as they hadn't encountered a single person yet and weren't to do so during the rest of their trip, either. They took a break for roughly thirty minutes and then carried on with their journey in a slower pace, which was welcomed by every single one of them, even though they couldn't deny that it made them feel slightly uneasy and guilty as well...

Almost four hours had passed, when they finally reached the borders to the Fire Country, but unlike what their sensei had told them, they didn't encounter a single living soul there.

"Where is everybody?" Shin enquired, looking around sceptically. Had they gotten lost? Was this the wrong part of the border – or even the wrong border in general?

"I don't know, but we need to find someone soon… Sayuri-sensei is counting on us, so let's go ahead!" Ryuu encouraged them and took a step forward, but as soon as he had, they were suddenly surrounded by numerous masked men and others that didn't wear any masks but were nevertheless hidden in the shadows of the trees and were therefore unrecognizable, too.

There was a sudden flash of light and as the three genin realized that it was just the light of the, for the most part clouded sun, being reflected from the blank blades of countless kunai, they closed ranks and pressed their backs together, trying to put up a better resistance against the people surrounding them. Drawing their weapons as well, they shot some timid glances at their faceless opponents until they suddenly heard a booming voice and turned their heads into the direction it came from.

"Hahaha – that's what I call a false alarm!" A man in a green spandex jumpsuit and a green vest, broke through the lines of the guard posts and planted himself in front of the three young genin, shooting them a wide toothpaste-advertisement smile. "You can withdraw now – I know these three paramount examples of youthfulness! They are not what we are looking for…"

"Gai-sensei!" They gasped simultaneously; clearly surprised by the discovery that these gloomy people were their own men…

"Why, that's how I'm commonly referred to, so what brings you here, all by yourself…? Don't tell me you have been given a solo-mission already!" He clasped a hand in front of his mouth and looked with a stunned and yet proud expression down at the three kids and they could have sworn that they had even seen an unnatural moist gleam in his black, beetle-like eyes.

"Yes! - Well, no!" Ryuu corrected himself and started retelling everything that had happened lately.

As he had finished, the man with the shiny black-hair considered them with a slightly concerned expression, before he exclaimed in a, for him, unusually serious voice: "Shibi, Shinobu, Yamato."

Right after he had uttered these names, the said persons were suddenly gathering around him and judging from their uniforms they were a chunin, a jounin and an ANBU.

"You heard what they said, take your teams and move north into the direction of Ame-Gakure and check what's going on." Gai, who was apparently responsible for this part of the border, instructed the three men, who nodded in affirmation and called for their teams. While the chunin- and the ANBU-team set off at once, the jounin-team remained where it was. The three genin watched with puzzled expressions how Shibi, their team-leader, raised his arms up and perceived how thousands of bugs came flying out of his sleeves.

"Eeeek!" Emi screeched in disgust and tried to hide herself behind her two male team-mates, who watched the spectacle with amazed expressions.

"Woah…" Shin gaped and followed how the jounins finally moved out as well.

"That was cool…" Ryuu's mouth was wide open, too and he just couldn't detach his eyes from the stirring black cloud that seemed to darken the entire sky above their heads.

"Insects are a speciality of the Aburame-clan, they are very useful when it comes to investigation-tasks." Gai nodded with his arms crossed in front of his chest, before he turned an encouraging smile towards the group of clearly exhausted genin and gave them a thumb-up. "Thou must not let worries overshadow the blossom of thy youth my dear friends!"

Some rather artificial smiles rose on their faces, as they warily observed the tall man who seemed to have gone mad… But even if that was the case, they were nevertheless grateful that he had taken them serious and acted at once, so now that they had successfully absolved their tasks they could finally take a break without having a guilty conscience.

…

…

_**3 days ago**_

_**Abandoned Inn, Land of Birds**_

"Just what are you thinking?! We can't just take her with us – what if she runs off and tells everyone about our whereabouts, huh?!" Karin wandered restlessly through the small rectangular room, her entire team had assembled in, every once in a while running a hand through her long red hair in distress. She didn't like this situation at all and didn't see any sound reasons why they should burden themselves with that unconscious girl, who was on top of everything a potential threat to them.

"She's unconscious – she won't be able to say a word to anyone…" Suigetsu threw in. Actually he didn't care whether they left Sasuke's former team-mate behind or not, his main motivation in defending her lay in countering Karin and driving her up the wall.

"Tze, she won't stay unconscious forever! What will you do then – tell me?!" The red-haired woman enquired furiously – even though the situation mainly concerned Sasuke, who knew the girl and Juugo who had wanted to safe her, the discussion took place between the two less-involved persons.

"Well, we'll just leave her with you then – she won't get a chance to say a single word with you around, miss blabbermouth." He snickered about his own joke, before his grin along with his entire head vanished as Karin slammed her clenched fist into his face.

"Stop messing around fishhead – this is serious!" She shouted with a tomato-red face, still with her clenched fist raised up in front of her body.

"Geez… can't we just exchange them?" Suigetsu asked, addressed to Sasuke, as soon as his head had solidified again. "I bet she would fit way better into our team… but then about everyone would fit better than Karin." He chuckled and dodged another punch that was clearly directed at his head again.

"Baka! You're the one who's useless here, so you better shut up!" She groused still furious, before she demonstratively turned her back on him and focussed her attention on Sasuke and Juugo solely – well not so much on Juugo maybe…

"You know that I'm right, Sasuke, don't you? I don't know why you want her here anyway!" She lamented in a whiny voice and bit on her bottom lip in anger.

"She is injured and not even conscious – we can't just leave her behind like this." Juugo defended the girl in a calm voice and turned his gaze to the futon at the other side of the room, on which the much-discussed person was lying. The red-haired woman copied him, but her gaze held nothing of the worry that was clearly visible in her team-mates eyes.

"Tze, she doesn't look that bad anymore… she'll be fine - there is no need for us to play her nurse." Karin said, while she stepped towards the girl and laid a hand on her forehead. "She should wake up by the end of the day, so we should be gone by then – what do you say Sasuke?" She turned around again and shot Sasuke, who was sitting next to Juugo on the low windowsill an expectant look, as did the rest of his team, too.

"She couldn't take the journey back to the Fire Country on her own, Sasuke." Juugo reminded him again, but his statement caused Karin to roll her eyes and heave an irritated sigh.

"So you're saying we're not only her nurses but should also play an escort for her? – I don't think so – Sasuke!" She bellowed in a prompting tone and this time Sasuke finally voiced his opinion. "We need to rest anyway, so we'll wait till she wakes up and leave it to her whether she wants to accompany us or not."

"Accompany us?" Karin gasped with a shocked expression on her face. "What do you mean by that – you think we'll just walk her to Konoha and abandon her under the main-gate, like some kind of foundling?"

"We're heading to Oto-Gakure, which means we have to pass the Fire-Country anyway, so we can take her along with us for as long as our journey allows." Sasuke stated calmly but the red-head still didn't seem too happy about his plans.

"And what if she doesn't want to accompany us? Or if she sets a trap for us?" Karin enquired, it was obvious that she was still furious, as she shot one hateful glare after the other at the senseless girl.

"She isn't the kind to set traps and if she doesn't want to go with us, then that's that." Sasuke rose to his feet and left the room, deciding that the conversation was over, even though not all participants seemed to be happy with the outcome.

…

…

_**3 days ago**_

_**Hokage office, Konoha-Gakure**_

A handsome, young-looking woman with blonde hair and honey-gold eyes was sitting in a chair, right in front of her desk which was facing into the direction of the closed wooden door. Her back was turned on the window wall, from where you had a good look over the entire village, which was in quite an uproar once again. After they had found the deserted battlefield at the northern end of the River Country they had raised their alert-level even higher than before. It had prompted a lot of questions, this discovery, more than it brought answers… And now she was sitting here like a statue, rooted to her place here at the old wooden desk, with her hands under her chin to keep her tired head erect, while her worried expression seemed to be chiselled into her face, as were wrinkles in other women's visages.

There was a faint knock on the door and she could perceive the voice of her assistant, announcing a visitor, but before the blonde woman even had the chance to say anything, the door flew open with a loud bang and a very well-known blond boy came running into the office with an aghast expression on his dirty face.

"Tsunade-sama!" He came to a halt right in front of her desk and rested his hands on his knees to catch some air. His clothes looked rather ragged and he had many tiny scratched on the visible parts of his skin and if Tsunade remembered correctly, he was actually supposed to be on a mission at the other end of the Fire Country.

"I came here… as fast as I could…" He panted, still quite breathless. "Is it true? Is she really…?" He finally looked up and bored his deeply troubled blue eyes into the no less worried ones of the Hokage, who then cast her lids down, unable to meet his eyes directly, before she nodded in affirmation.

Naruto slammed his fist onto the surface of her desk, before he gripped with his hands for the edges of the table and lowered his head between his outstretched arms. "What happened exactly?" He enquired after a couple of seconds, still not looking up again.

Heaving a weary sigh, Tsunade lifted her head up a little, before she buried her face in her hands and began explaining in a clearly fatigued voice: "Sayuri has been sent with a team of young genin to carry out a mission in Suna-Gakure. They absolved it successfully, as we've heard, but then the day before yesterday her team arrived our western border all by themselves. She had sent them to get help, even though she wasn't sure if she would need it then… However as the back-up squad reached the place they had been sent to, they only found a deserted battlefield, but no trace of either Sayuri or the attackers." Still not lifting her head up, the Hokage buried her fingers in her hair and sighed again.

"No traces?" Naruto finally got a grip on himself again and stood up straight, even though the worried expression hadn't vanished from his features yet.

"It had taken quite long, first for the genin to reach the border and then for the backup-squad to find the right place, so when they finally reached it, the snow hadn't left much of their traces behind – and apparently they had also been mindful to cover their tracks." The Godaime finally tilted her head up and rose from her chair, turning around to look out of the wide window, hoping that it would help soothing her.

"But who was it and what do they want with Sayuri?" Naruto asked with a desperate look on his face, while his eyes remained fixed on the black and red gambling symbol on the back of Tsunade's jade-green jacket.

"I don't know…" She admitted helplessly, before she finally turned around and looked at the blonde boy in front of her.

"But didn't you send anyone to search for her?" He asked in a distressed voice, even though he knew the answer to that question already.

"Of course I did!" The blonde woman looked slightly offended by this assumption. "But they couldn't find her… it is as if the earth had swallowed her up, I just-" Tsunade let herself fall back into her chair again and took a deep breath, trying to maintain her self-control.

"Let me search for her!" Naruto proposed, sounding a little more enthusiastic now. "I'll find her for sure, believe it!"

Tsunade looked up at the blonde boy and even though she knew that she couldn't talk him out of it, she nevertheless said: "I've already sent my best tracking squads and they haven't been able to find her, so what could you do?"

"I will find her, because she is my friend… First Sasuke then Sayuri…." He closed his eyes and shook his head with a saddened expression on his face, before his features turned hard again and he carried on in a steadier voice: "I won't let all my friends just vanish like that… I'll find them both… you'll see… I'll find them for sure…" It seemed as if that last part was rather directed to himself than to her.

A tired smile rose on Tsunade's face as she couldn't help but to be impressed by Naruto's ever-present and unwavering determination - if there really was someone to find them than it was probably him…

"Uzumaki Naruto I'll assign you the task to retrieve Sayuri again and bring her back to Konoha." She stated in a firm voice, earning a thankful smile from Naruto in response.

"I'll try to assemble a team for you… even though that might be hard, now that almost everyone is already assigned to other missions…" Tsunade sighed and stared with a faraway expression at the ceiling. "I'll see what I can do… You get ready and meet up with them in two hours in front of the main gate."

Naruto nodded in affirmation and turned around to walk towards the door, when Tsunade held him back again. "Naruto? – You will bring her back, I know that…"

She flashed a familiar smile at him, which was returned at once.

"Yes." He nodded before he walked out of the room and started to prepare himself for his next mission.

…

…

_**Four hours ago**_

_**Midland region, Land of Gras**_

"Are you sure this is the right way?" A blonde woman, with her hair put up in a high ponytail and her long fringe covering one half of her face, asked in a breathless voice. Surrounded by three other people and a huge white dog, she was running through a stark field, covered by a thin layer of frost, but despite the good view they had over the open region, they couldn't see a single living being here.

"No… but it could be – we'll just have to try!" A man with brown, tousled hair and red, triangular marks on each cheek, answered her question eventually, sounding equally out of breath as the blonde woman did.

"Yo Neji – can you see anything?" A ninja with blonde hair and blue saucer-eyes side-glanced over his shoulder, as he addressed the man with the long dark-brown hair, who was running in the back of their small group.

"Nothing – not a single person in a 5 mile radius." He replied in a calm voice, as if the running didn't strain him at all.

"This is useless…" The Yamanaka moaned and wiped a thin film of perspiration from her forehead. "We won't be able to find her just by searching through the places, the tracking squads haven't checked yet – this could take us forever and still it's not a given that we'll find her…"

"So you wanna give up from the start?" Naruto growled through his teeth, casting a rather angry glare at the girl beside him.

"Of course not! But without a strategy… And it's so long ago she might be…" She fell quiet again and bowed her head in distress.

"It's not like we have no strategy at all…" Kiba muttered trying to sound encouraging and confident, before he looked to the side and nodded at his huge, wolfish dog, which hence came closer to him. He turned his head back to the Yamanaka and decreased his pace, which was copied by her, too, as she noticed that the Inuzuka had reached his hand out to her. She hesitantly grabbed for it and was then pulled on Akamaru's back with a jerk. The exhausted woman blinked confusedly, before she shot the brown-haired man a thankful smile and followed his words as he carried on speaking: "There hasn't been any rain or snow in the last days, so we might be able to find some traces now… but even if not, we are just covering this sector, there are other people in the other ones so someone is bound to find something… you'll see."

Naruto and Neji nodded in assent, even though they looked rather grim and Ino felt a little more reassured now, too, so she smiled at Kiba again, before she turned her head back to the front to scrutinize the area they were travelling through.

About three hours later, they were running through a slightly better vegetated region, it featured quite some leafless trees, as well as a couple of evergreens every once in a while, but there weren't enough plants yet to refer to it as a forest.

"We must be close to the Land of Earth." Neji stated eventually, as the bluish-seeming peaks of a wide mountain chain appeared on the edges of their sight.

"Hm…"Naruto nodded, while he let out a low growl.

He had been like that from the very day they had started their journey, you could easily see that this whole thing affected him deeply, so everyone tried to be very considerate in dealing with him – especially because it was really rare to see the always cheerful and enthusiastic knucklehead ninja this silent and sad, not to forget aggressive…

"There must be a small locality, somewhere near the borders…" Ino, who was still riding on Akamaru threw in, after hearing this piece of information. "I've been there on a mission before, maybe we could go there and ask the people for information…"

"Sounds good to me…" Kiba consented to her proposal, but Neji seemed to be of a different opinion.

"Shit…" He cursed, causing a frown to appear on Kiba's forehead, as he was a little taken aback by this harsh refusal.

"You have a better idea?" He asked still considering the Hyuga with an uncomprehending look.

"No!" Neji shook his head vehemently and came to a sudden stop, stretching out his arms to keep the other people from running ahead. "There is someone…"

His head was turned upwards, but as the other three ninja followed the direction of his gaze, they couldn't see anything but some dull clouds.

"Where?" Naruto asked in a grave voice, already moving one of his hands to his back-pouch to grab for some kunai.

"Over there…" Neji raised his hand and pointed at one of the numerous clouds and just a couple of seconds later they could see a huge, white, somewhat weird looking bird fly down into their direction.

"You…!" Naruto's whole body tensed up, as he saw the two figures in long black cloaks with red clouds on it, jump off the clay bird as soon as it had landed on the ground just a couple of metres in front of them. "You're supposed to be dead!"

Neji, too looked at them with a startled expression, still vividly remembering how the blonde Akatsuki had nearly killed them by blowing himself up and yet he was here – his Byakugan left no doubt about that.

"Always the first one to talk…" Deidara shot a boastful grin at the group in front of him, while the man next to him, who was wearing a swirled orange mask that covered his entire face, stepped next to him and chuckled in a funny, nasal voice: "Isn't that the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, Deidara-sempai? – Doesn't look scary to me…"

Another guttural snarl escaped Naruto's throat, as he crouched down and was just about to rush at the people in front of him, but Neji, who had already anticipated that held him back.

"Let go of me, Neji!" He snarled enraged and tried to break free from the Hyuga's grip, but that one remained adamant and tried to calm him down.

"Wait…" He muttered meekly and kept his eyes fixed on their enemies' every movement.

"So? What brought you here, presenting yourself on a silver plate to make things easier for us?" The blonde man asked haughtily, before he shrugged and shook his head, to underline his cluelessness.

"We are searching for –" Ino emitted in a desperate tone, but was cut off by Neji at once.

"Ino – they won't help us!" He reminded her, fearing that his team-mate wasn't aware of the threat those two Akatsuki posed to them.

"Oh no! – just go ahead and ask! So, you are searching for someone?" The blonde still wore a haughty sneer on his face and his partner again commented in the same silly voice. "Hehe, yeah, just ask."

Instead of answering they just eyed them even more cautiously than before, while Naruto's muscles seemed to tense up to the breaking point and he was gritting his teeth so tightly that he wasn't even able to utter a single word.

"Let's see, who could it be? One of those from the last time?" Deidara asked them, trying to read in their expressions whether he was right or not and it seemed as if that was the case here. "I see, so boy or girl?"

"Teme…" Naruto let out a brutish growl, while his whole body was shaking and his pupils contracted into narrow slits, his irises turning blood red.

"So a girl, then, un." Deidara chuckled self-complacently and the man next to him joined in on the laughter. "It's not the one we just killed, is it?" His one visible blue eye bored deep into the red ones of Naruto, while the mocking grin on his face grew wider and wider.

"Sempai, we didn't kill anyone…" Tobi whispered behind a cupped hand, so none of the Konoha-nins in front of them heard what he said.

"Baka – I know that but they don't, so just go along with it!" Deidara screamed in a whisper, the irritated grimace on his face giving away that he was rather annoyed by his partner.

The four Konoha-nins stared with wide-eyes at the two Akatsuki, trying to digest what they had just heard and now there was no holding back for Naruto any longer. Red chakra began flowing out of his body and soon surrounded him entirely, like a translucent reddish coat. After the first two tails had formed on his back, Naruto gritted his sharp, fang-like teeth and dashed forwards, nearly dragging Neji with him, as he was still trying to hold him back.

"Haha, now he's angry, that's the real jinchuuriki, un!" Deidara laughed and jumped back on his bird, which took wing at once, leaving Tobi defenceless on the ground.

"Sempaiii!" He shrieked in a high pitched voice and tried to run away, but one of Naruto's chakra-claws had already seized him and hauled him against a nearby tree.

"Tobi – that's a Jinchuuriki so be more careful!" Deidara called out in a slightly amused voice, entirely inappropriate considering the fact that his partner has just been fatally injured, if not killed.

"Yes, Sempai!" The man with the orange mask affirmed and just stood up as if nothing had happened, not even his clothes showed a sign of the previous attack…

Naruto hardly took notice of that though, his eyes remained intently fixed on the blonde Akatsuki on the white bird, flying in wide circles over their heads. Letting out another growl, he jumped into the air, going straight for his enemy, while he vaguely perceived how his team-mates called his name. He was just a couple of metres away from him, his outstretched hand almost able to grip for the claw of the clay-bird, when a couple of tiny white, spiders landed on his head and shoulders, exploding the second he looked at them.

Enveloped by dark-grey billows of smoke, Naruto fell down to the ground and there was a loud bang as he hit it.

"Naruto!" Ino screeched appalled and ran towards the injured ninja, planning to fulfil her duty as a medic-nin, but as she had almost closed up to him, Neji appeared at her side and grabbed for her arm.

"Neji, what –" The Yamanaka, started and followed the brown-haired man's gaze as he nodded into Naruto's direction. She could see the blonde, who was still surrounded by some kind of sphere, made from red, wildly churning chakra, his upper garments were torn from the explosions and most parts of his visible skin were littered with lacerations and scrapes, but before she was even able to take in all of his injuries, the first ones already started to close and another red fluorescent tail – the third one - appeared on his back. Ino had to swallow hard as she perceived the air of murderous intent, coming from the Uzumaki. He was like a completely different person now, maybe not even a person; the further his transformation carried on, the more beast-like he became… they had to put a stop to this.

"Neji!" She urged him in an almost pleading voice, but it didn't seem as if the Hyuga took notice of her. He just kept staring with a blank face at the two people in front of them, not relaxing his grasp on the blonde girl's upper arm.

"Hey!" She tried to catch his attention, but he just remained rooted to the spot, the red glow of Naruto's chakra filling his pale, almost white eyes with an eerie light.

"Kiba!" She turned to the other side and the brown-haired man ran towards her at once, detaching Neji's fingers from her arm.

"We need to do something!" She yelled at Kiba, while she observed how Naruto jumped up again, using the tails of his fox-cloak to manoeuvre in the air and attack his flying opponent, while there was no trace of his partner anywhere.

Naruto no longer took in anything of his surroundings; overcome by rage, his vision had narrowed to an extend, where he could see nothing but the blonde man above him. The blonde man and the silly, mocking sneer on his face. One of his chakra claws was able to cut off one of the bird's wings, so the blonde Akatsuki jumped off it, before it exploded with another loud bang, the force of the explosion hurling Naruto against a nearby tree.

"Behold my art!" Deidara snickered like a maniac, as he landed light-footedly on the hard ground, keeping his eyes fixed on the red light, because that was everything he could see of his opponent in the rising smoke-screen.

As the fume finally faded, he found himself right in front of the upright standing Uzumaki, who was glowering at him menacingly, just like a wild animal.

"You should be grateful that you get your strength from the Kyuubi – your little friend didn't have that much luck…"

A mocking sneer rose on his face, as he perceived how Naruto became even angrier than before, his entire body tensed up and his eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets, before both his eyes turned entirely red, even the white of his retinas vanished, as if someone had dropped a crimson curtain over them. The chakra-cloak surrounding him, briefly lost its fox-like shape, as it was churning around wildly, until it looked like a blood tainted cyclone, with Naruto in the centre of it. Another low growl left his throat and his skin seemed to crumble from his body, dissipating in the flow of the Kyuubi's chakra, which was orbiting him. A glowing, crimson-red layer appeared underneath it, while the fourth tail finally emerged and the Nine-tailed fox finally took control of its host.

The chakra-tornado narrowed and darkened until it looked like a ball of pure, black energy, enclosing the Uzumaki in its midst. He was entirely concealed by the sable orb which was enwrought with glowing red lines, reminding a little of blood vessels on their dark, pulsating substratum and made the circular sphere look like a living object.

Ino, Neji, Kiba and Akamaru were standing a good distance away from the place of action and yet the vehemence of Naruto's chakra even reached up to them, forcing them to stumble backwards, while they shielded their faces behind their arms to keep some approaching debris from hitting them.

Peering through their raised arms, they perceived the black energy ball, but no sign of Naruto, when there suddenly was a loud roar and the entire earth started shaking, all of them losing the ground beneath their feet at once and the following quavers of the earth made it almost impossible for them to get up as well.

"Stop it Naruto!" Kiba shouted, his voice muffled by the surrounding noise and his arms he was still clutching in front of his face. The chakra-twirl had stopped by now and as the smoke faded, they could finally see Naruto, or rather a miniature Kyuubi, who sat amidst a huge crater, completely still except for the four reddish-orange chakra-tails that were wagging through the air in an almost leisure manner.

Deidara was in the air again and still no sign of his partner, so Kiba took his chance and approached the Uzumaki carefully, trying not to provoke him by moving too fast or too jerkily.

"Naruto, calm down." He tried to shush him in a quiet, appeasing voice, but the mini-kyuubi didn't even look at him, but stared at the trees in front of him, as if he was completely oblivious of the presence of the people surrounding him. Kiba took another step forwards, but as he reached the edge of the crater, Naruto's head suddenly jerked into his direction and his glowing, now white eyes that reminded a little of brightly lit windows, focussed on the Inuzuka.

He let out another ear-splitting roar and a great chakra-ball appeared in front of his open mouth and dashed with a tremendous speed towards the brown-haired shinobi, before he was even able to think the word 'escape'.

"Watch out!" Neji seemed to have awoken from his trance and pulled his team-mate out of the way. No second too late. The incredible heat, Naruto's attack had set free, scorched Kiba's left arm, even though he had already been out of the reach of the energy ball, which then flew past them and burnt a broad line into the forest until it crashed into a faraway mountain, making a lot of noise at the collision.

Another tremor went through the earth, but as soon as it had ceased there was no other sound than that of Deidara's mad laughter. Still standing on his clay owl, he flew in wide circles around Naruto, considerate not to get into his reach, while he watched with apparent glee in his blue eyes, how the jinchuuriki attacked his own team, facilitating his work by doing so.

In spite of having been able to escape that first assault of their friend, who had entirely lost control of himself, more or less unharmed, Kiba and Neji didn't get a chance to breathe, because now that they had attracted Naruto's attention to themselves, they were soon in the centre of his next attacks.

Jumping upwards, the mini-kyuubi again released so much energy, that the crater around him deepened even more, while many rock-fragments and at times even rather big boulders, came flying about their heads.

Neji reacted at once and used his Hakkeshô Kaiten, to fend off the approaching missiles, however that speciality move of his didn't do him much good as Naruto landed just a couple of metres in front of him and used his chakra-tails to sweep him away like he was made of straw or any other weightless material.

Having to watch how his friend was thrown against a nearby tree, which at once broke down at the impact, Kiba couldn't help but to rush towards him at once, regardless of all reason that clearly militated against it. He wasn't even close to the brown-haired jounin as Naruto again used his chakra to get rid of him – it had all the seeming as if he went after every animate object his eyes fell on, therefore Deidara was in quite a good position since the Uzumaki never seemed to look up.

Apparently Ino was on the safe side, too, seeing as fear had paralyzed her, making her seem almost rigid, if it wasn't for the wafting of her hair and the occasional tremors that shook her entire body. Not enough to rouse Naruto's attention though… As soon as he had ridded himself of his team-mates, he again just sat on the ground, staring into space while he at times let out a piercing roar and lashed his tails about, destroying most of the adjacent wood- and mountain-region by doing so.

After some time his head turned into the other direction, so Ino sniffed a chance to get to her, without a doubt gravely injured team-members to commence some first-aid treatment, but despite being oh so careful and considerate by moving into their direction, Naruto perceived what little movement she had been able to do at once and immediately aimed one of his chakra-claws at her. Ino had expected that however, so she was able to jump back in time. Nevertheless he hit the ground right in front of her feet so hard, that the quivering of the ground caused her to stumble, before she was buried underneath the huge boulders that had been hauled into the air as soon as Naruto's chakra-paw had banged into the earth.

"Sempai?" Tobi seemed to have reappeared again and was standing on a branch at the top of one of the remaining trees, close to where Deidara was circling through the air with his bird.

"What is it, Tobi?" The blonde Akatsuki still couldn't help but to snicker, as he watched with a manic glimmer in his eyes, how the mini-kyuubi not only fought his own team, but also destroyed about everything surrounding him.

Total destruction – something that has fascinated him ever since…

"You think it was a good idea to make him angry, sempai? – I mean how are we supposed to capture him now?" The man with the swirled mask asked in quite a timid tone, doing his best to hide himself between the numerous branches surrounding him, even though his rather conspicuous bright orange mask thwarted his plans. The last thing he wanted was for that beast to realize his presence.

"We do it like always… this is gonna be fun!" Deidara chuckled while he moved one of his hands into the clay-bag at his side, but then stopped short in his movement, as he heard a female voice.

"Naruto!"

His blue eyes wandered to the source of the voice, until they came across a violet-haired girl, wearing an old tattered cloak, who stood at the edge of the remaining forest, looking with a shocked expression at the mini-kyuubi and the chaos surrounding him.

…

…


	45. The art of explosion

**45.**** The art of explosion**

With eyes wide in shock, Sayuri stood at the very edge of the huge crater, which had doubtlessly been caused by Naruto, still too appalled to know what to do next. The unusually warm and dry wind blew through the thick, stagnant air and whipped her dark hair into her face, while the reddish shadows of the chakra-cloak, which was entirely enveloping the Uzumaki, danced over her pale skin and made her eyes look as if they were on fire. Black soot particles cavorted through the air, twirling around each other in little whirls, as if they were engaged in a dizzying waltz, while light-grey trails of smoke spiralled out of some points of the caldera and from a couple of the remaining trees, only to rise into the air and create some kind of invisible jar over the entire scene, causing the oxygen on the ground to get scarcer, despite being outdoors.

It was a scary sight. All this chaos… the massive destruction, going as far as your eyes could see; the scattered orange flames, trying to ignite even more of the land with their fiery red tongues; the ear-splitting roars, going at a volume and frequency that they kept the earth in a constant tremor and amidst all of this was Naruto. Or rather what was supposed to be him, since this fox-like figure had little in common with the real Naruto. The last time the Uzumaki had relied on the Kyuubi's powers, had been quite a while ago and she knew that he didn't want to make use of it out of fear of harming his friends – so what was it that caused him to give in to the monster that had been sealed inside of him?

It was only as that question crossed her mind that Sayuri was able to detach her eyes from the horrifying image in front of her and fix her gaze on the white bird, flapping its wings in the air high above her head, but not moving away from its place while doing so. Above the bulky torso of the owl, or whatever it was supposed to be, she could see a blonde shock of hair, tied up to a high ponytail in the middle of the man's head and a dark-rimmed blue eye glistened with apparent delight into her direction.

Deidara!

Same as everyone else, she had believed him to be long dead. She had seen him die and yet he was here – the reason for Naruto to lose his self-control, just like back then, too…

Pressing her teeth tightly together to keep herself from screaming at the Akatsuki, she forced herself to snatch her glowering eyes away from the blonde man and focused her attention on the Uzumaki again. He looked comparatively calm now, merely sitting on his hind-legs and scouring his eyes through the area, just his flaring chakra-tails were whipping through the air, as if he meant to kill some annoying flies.

After taking a deep breath in and exhaling the sooted air again in about the same amount of time, Sayuri took a few careful steps forwards and raised her voice in what she wanted to be a calm and soothing tone. "Naruto… enough. You don't have to do this…"

As soon as she had finished talking, his head jerked into her direction and he emitted a deafening roar, up to now unequalled in its volume. Fearing that her head would split into halves, Sayuri clutched her hands to her ears, trying to shield them from the incoming noise, before she jumped backwards, as she realized that one of Naruto's chakra-claws approached her at a terrifying speed.

Barely escaping the planned assault, Sayuri again came to a halt on the edge of the crater. Lucky for her, that position was high enough for her not to get hit by the boulders which flew through the air as a result of Naruto's attack. Thoroughly shocked, she stared at her team-mate, desperately searching for a way to get through to him. Talking hadn't worked and she couldn't just outwait his loss of control with that Akatsuki soaring through the air right above them…

Another ear-tormenting roar was heard, before a now seriously angry looking mini-kyuubi jumped into her direction. It had all the seeming as if the fact that she was still standing bothered him to some extend, at least that was what it looked like from her perspective…

There was the hollow and warped sound of some laughter, seeming to come from very far away, as merely a couple of metres separated Naruto from her. He was approaching her in what appeared to be slow-motion, escaping looked so easy, but it wasn't. It seemed as if in the second she tried to move away, someone had clicked the fast-forward button and before she could even press her eyes shut, she already saw his raised claw, right in front of her face, ready to strike at her.

Hunching her shoulders, she tried to raise her arms up, to cover her face, but wasn't even able to get them any higher than torso-height, as she felt how she fell to the side and a sharp pain ran through her left forearm.

A metallic cling rang through the air, followed by a dull thud as she hit the ground. Before even looking at her injury, she turned her head back up, trying to find out what had just happened. Right in front of her was a familiar white-haired man with a huge sword, apparently engaged in a trial of strength with the nine-tails' host.

"Suigetsu!" She exclaimed in a surprised voice and earned a cheeky side-glance from the Houzuki.

"Is this seriously this blonde brat?" He hissed through gritted teeth. Despite wearing a smile on his face, you could see that it cost him quite an effort to resist the Uzumaki and the inhuman strength he was given by the nine-tailed fox.

"Uh-huh." She nodded meekly, before she felt how a searing pain ran through her arm, so she focussed her attention on her injury: merely three parallel red marks, so cleanly cut, as if they had been cauterised by a scorching blade and yet the pain seemed to drift from the wound margins to every other adjacent cell, infecting her with the fox's poison.

Naruto's claw still rested on Suigetsu's sword, so as he realized, that he was fighting a losing battle, the nuke-nin mobilized all his strength and pushed the blade farther forwards, only to jump back the next second, out of the fox's reach.

"Isn't he supposed to be your friend, or something?" The Houzuki enquired in a wheezing voice, never lifting his eyes of the reddish glowing jinchuuriki, who again let out a furious howl and crouched down, arching his back like a furious cat.

Suigetsu's eyes hardened as he braced himself for the next attack, even though it seemed impossible to escape the four onrushing chakra-claws. "Woah – not so fast!" He hissed through clenched teeth, before he turned his entire body to water, just a millisecond before the materialized chakra came crashing all around him.

Apparently taking the fact that his opponent was nowhere to be seen as a victory, Naruto returned his attention to the violet-haired girl, still sitting on the same spot of ground, she had fallen on previously. As soon as she noticed the two brightly gleaming window eyes, which were again gazing at her, she swallowed hard, hoping that Suigetsu would come up with something soon - something that didn't include him being a puddle…

It seemed as if he was to obey her wish, since he solidified again, as soon as the jinchuuriki's attention had been drawn away from him. With raised sword, he rushed towards the Uzumaki, who had his back turned to him, mindful not to make any noise that might betray his presence. However before he was able to hit his opponent, he was shoved away by one of his chakra-tails and crashed with a loud splash against one of the trees.

With a desperate look on her face, Sayuri formed a couple of seals and summoned her butterflies, which at once encircled the fox's host and took away his sight. Using her chance, she stumbled to her feet and rushed into the direction Suigetsu had been hauled at, when she heard another furious roar, so loud that it generated a sound wave, which seemed to push all air away with so much force that it not only wiped away the butterflies, but also everything else in its reach, while a new crater formed underneath Naruto's feet and fused with the older one. Sayuri had been whirled through the air, too and landed right next to where Suigetsu was lying, clinging to a tree, so he wouldn't be blown off farther.

"Damn, this won't get us anywhere!" He exclaimed sourly, while he kept his eyes firmly fixed on the Uzumaki, who again seemed to have forgotten about them. "Doesn't he have some kind of weak-spot – catnip or something…?"

"… … You do know that he's possessed by a fox-spirit, don't you?" She eyed the silver-haired man sceptically, who then, in spite of the situation, scratched his head sheepishly and flashed a smile: "So what? Fox-cat, human-pet… who cares?"

"…if you say so…" Sayuri sighed and turned her attention back to the jinchuuriki, until she noticed that Deidara was now flying right above their heads, a mischievous sneer settling on his lips.

"The hell! – Is that this Akatsuki?!" Suigetsu, who had only just become aware of the blonde man's presence, concluded from seeing the black cloak with the conspicuous red clouds on it.

"You didn't know that?" Sayuri started in a low voice, but then a tiny movement to her side caught her attention and she jumped to her feet at once, while gripping for Suigetsu's collar and tugging him with her.

"Move!" She ordered him and only about a second later, the numerous small white spiders, which had been sitting on the trees right next to them exploded, the noise of the detonation again calling Naruto's attention to them.

"Damn!" They cursed in unison and jumped to the side, as the mini-kyuubi raced towards them, but it seemed as if they wouldn't be able to make it in time, Naruto and especially the chakra-cloak surrounding him were just way too fast for them. They were still in mid-air; Naruto's raised, reddish glowing paw barely half a metre away from them, but then something blocked their view and it took them a couple of seconds to realize what it was.

"Juugo!" Sayuri exhaled, startled and relieved all the same, however these emotions soon gave way to another one: shock. His height and his bright orange hair was what had made her recognize him at once; however his momentary rear-view had hardly anything in common with the way he usually looked. There were some weirdly shaped, greyish excrescences growing out of his shoulders and arms, looking like some kinds of spiky weapons, and it seemed as if he used them as a shield against the Uzumaki's attack.

As Naruto's claw crashed against Juugo's crossed arms, he was shoved to the back by the impact and crashed against the two people behind him, so they all stumbled backwards and fell into the shallow crater, caused by Deidara's explosives from just a few seconds ago.

"Are you okay?" Juugo, who had buried the other two shinobi underneath him, enquired, as he got to his feet, relieving Suigetsu and Sayuri of his weight.

"Perfectly." Suigetsu answered, sounding quite breathless, which wasn't really surprising, considering Juugo's weight. "What took you so long?"

"Karin…" He merely sighed and fixed his eyes on the jinchuuriki, who slowly stalked towards them, measuring his steps like a hunting wildcat.

Before he had reached the edge of the small crater, in which the three people were already bracing themselves for another attack, he came to a sudden stop though, as a sharp object flew against his back. It didn't harm him in any way; it merely bounced off the red-gleaming chakra-shield, which was enveloping him and fell with a clattering sound to the ground at his feet. Nevertheless, it had distracted him and made him turn his back on them – it seemed as if the Kyuubi-Naruto had a very short attention span in general: when he focused on one thing he grew unaware to everything else, which was rather favourable to his almost-victims, who sighed with relief as soon as they thought themselves safe.

Suigetsu had already jumped to his feet, while Juugo helped Sayuri up, so all three of them peered past the miniature Kyuubi and found Sasuke and Karin standing a couple of metres in front of him.

Sasuke's crimson eyes were resting on Naruto, same as Karin's similarly red ones, until she jerked her head up all of a sudden and gazed into the sky.

"Sasuke!" She wheezed and pulled at Sasuke's sleeve with a shaken face. She had been so distracted and not to forget shocked at the sight of the Kyuubi and especially by the feeling of his chakra, now that she was nearly face to face with him, that she had nearly forgotten about the Akatsuki soaring right above them, even though she had made out his presence before already, which is why they had come here at all…

"I know." Sasuke stated in a calm voice, never averting his eyes from the jinchuuriki, who had crouched down, ready to leap forwards. "Stay back." He stretched out the arm, she was still clinging to and therewith pushed his team-mate behind his back, so hardly anything, but a shock of her red hair was visible of her then.

"Hm." She nodded brusquely and blushed slightly, while Sasuke dropped his arm again, forcing her to let go and took a step forward. The second he moved, Naruto sprang off the ground and leaped towards him, but then slowed down rapidly and stumbled almost dazedly forwards, until he came to a full stop, as he was caught in Sasuke's genjutsu.

…

…

The bell-like sound of dripping water echoed through the long, empty corridor, which was bathed in a squalid dark-green light. Many tangled wires and seeping tubes ran over the upper part of the yellow-green-appearing walls and the entire floor was submerged with a foot-high layer of turbid water, which only added to the sewerage-like impression this whole construction conveyed.

With deliberate steps, a dark haired man, dressed in a similar dark cloak, paced through, what appeared to be the main canal, never directing his gaze at any of the corridors to his side, which were entirely hidden in the darkness, but keeping his crimson red eyes firmly fixed on the imposing iron gate in front of him. It took up the entire wall, so it had to be at least six metres high and its edges were ornamented with golden flourishes. The area behind the long, narrow bars was left in complete darkness, the only thing that could be seen was a piece of a black and orange training suit, without a doubt belonging to Naruto. One of his legs stood in front of the gate and he had his left shoulder leaned against one of the iron-bars around which he had also wrapped his hand, but the rest of his body had vanished in the solid darkness on the other side of the gate.

Sasuke took another step forward, so hardly two metres separated him from the end of the tunnel, when a deep, husky voice reverberated through the long canal.

"Uchiha Sasuke, so we do meet again…" The second these words faded away, a pair of huge blood-red eyes opened up on the other side of the gate and cast a hateful glare at the man in front of them.

Sasuke came to a stop, but didn't respond to this statement, he just kept staring at the Nine-Tailed-Demon-Fox which had been sealed inside of Naruto.

"So you did take my advice and kept Naruto alive…" The Kyuubi mused with apparent amusement in his voice.

"I came to bring Naruto back…" Sasuke stated in a dry voice and narrowed his eyes, as he heard some mocking laughter coming from the nine-tails.

"… bring him back, huh? And if he doesn't want to?" The nine-tailed fox had gotten so close to the gate now, that Sasuke could even see his huge black nose, which he had pressed against the bars, just a couple of metres above Naruto's body.

"That's out of the question." Sasuke replied and took some further steps forward, his gleaming red Sharingan firmly fixed on the Kyuubi, who let out a guttural growl and bared his teeth. The closer Sasuke got to Naruto, the angrier the nine-tailed-fox seemed to become, but being sealed away in this prison cell inside of Naruto, there was nothing he could do about it. As the raven-haired man finally reached his former team-mate, he laid a hand on his shoulder, but then looked up again as the Kyuubi raised his voice anew:

"The seal is already crumbling… it won't take long and I'll be free again and then you wretched Uchihas will be the first ones to suffer from my wrath…" This prediction was followed by some scornful laughter, which slowly faded out as the Kyuubi retreated farther into the depths of his prison, until it died out entirely. The Uchiha seemed rather unimpressed by this threat, though and finally pulled the semi-conscious Naruto out of the cell, who needed some time to recollect himself, but then cast a perplexed look at the raven-haired man next to him.

"Sasuke!" His dazed deep blue eyes grew wide, as he recognized his old friend and then became aware of where they were. "What are you doing here?"

"Doesn't matter." He muttered and closed his eyes to break the genjutsu.

…

…

Naruto had only just come to a halt, when they perceived how the chakra shield around him started flaring weirdly and rose higher into the air. A few seconds later the upper parts of the red-glowing cloak detached themselves from the rest of it and dissolved in the stagnant air.

"What is going on here?" Suigetsu enquired, as he observed how the direct, red and black enwrought coat drew back and Naruto, entirely deprived of his epidermal skin layer, emerged underneath it.

As soon as his retransformation was completed, Naruto sunk down to the floor, his entire body shaking with pain.

"Naruto!" Sayuri jumped out of the crater and closed up to her team-mate, at once beginning to heal the wounds, which were covering his entire body. It seemed to be a hard piece of work, considering that more or less his whole skin had dissolved, but the Kyuubi in him increased his own self-healing power, so it worked better than she would have expected.

"Sayuri…" He muttered weakly as he finally opened his eyes, a pained expression clearly visible in his worn out and still skin-less face.

"Shh…" She hushed him and moved her green-glowing hands up to his throat, which at once started to grow a new layer of skin.

"You're okay…" He muttered in a barely audible voice, as he stared at his without a doubt unharmed team-mate, before his eyes drifted to the long cuts on her arm, she hadn't been able to heal entirely and he was proven wrong in his assumption. He closed his eyes miserably, knowing that it had been his doing, before he cast them up again and enquired in a weak, worn out voice: "…What is Sasuke doing here?"

"He… – they all came here to help… you'll be okay, Naruto-kun." She replied in a gentle voice and gave her team-mate a light smile.

The blonde nodded subtly, still too weak to move much more than that, but then he let his head fall to the side and roamed his eyes over the demolished battlefield, realizing that it was probably his doing, as well.

"Where are the others…?" He murmured weakly and again focussed his gaze on the violet-haired girl, not missing the confused look that flitted over her face.

"What others?" Sayuri asked a little startled, finally starting to heal Naruto's face, what didn't really make talking for him any easier.

"You didn't… see them…?" The Uzumaki asked with a tinge of alarm in his failing voice. He tried to sit up then, but Sayuri pushed him back down.

"See whom?" She enquired once more and noticed the guilty expression on Naruto's for the most part healed face.

"Neji, Kiba and Ino…"

Sayuri's eyes widened in shock and she tilted her head to the side to get a better glimpse of the immediate place of action.

There was nothing. Merely a wide path of destruction, but no living being as far as the eye could see. The dusty, grassless ground descended into sometimes shallow, sometimes deep craters only to ascend into newly formed rocks and piles of stones again. Even now some scattered trails of smoke squirmed through the air, casting a grey shroud of turbid fume over the scenery, but there was no trace of the three missed persons – nothing.

"You again…" All eyes drifted to the sky, where Deidara's white clay-bird was slowly flying down into their direction, until it landed a couple of metres in front of the no longer small gathering of shinobi.

"I still have a score to settle with you." The Uchiha muttered in a calm voice, before he unsheathed his katana and took a couple of steps forwards.

"True – besides I'll make you pay for interfering in my affairs, un!" Deidara snorted and shot a haughty sneer at the raven-haired man in front of him, who didn't really look as if he knew what he was talking about. He just stared through his bored, red eyes at his opponent, as indifferent as ever and Deidara truly hated it.

"Itachi was my business!" He spat out the words like acid phlegm. "So instead I'll now wipe that indifferent look off _your_ face!" His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and he looked like a complete maniac, as he raised his hands up to his face and stared avidly at his opened palms. With a malicious sneer on his face, he cast his eyes up again and threw the spider-shaped mini-explosives randomly at the people underneath him.

Perceiving the approaching missiles, the six shinobi leaped out of the way at once, even though Naruto needed some help for it, but Deidara had his clay-bombs explode before they even reached the ground, so everyone except for Karin and Sasuke who had been farther away from the start, was at least grazed by the force of the explosives. It didn't seem as if anyone was harmed though, but the distance between the two groups had grown further apart, which was rather favourable for the group around Naruto, since Sasuke seemed to be Deidara's chosen opponent.

"…Ugh……" They heard a faint moan, coming from somewhere to the side, but couldn't quite detect the source of it. Naruto, who had been supported by Sayuri up to then, removed his arm from around her shoulder and took a slow step into the direction the sound had come from.

"Naruto…" Sayuri watched her team-mate with a worried expression, as he still looked fairly weakened, but considering his condition from just a minute ago, he had made a great deal of process, no one but him would have probably been able to manage in that short a time.

There was the sound of sliding stones and a few seconds later they caught sight of a brown-haired man, dressed in a tattered black-leather jacket, who groped his way around one of the huge boulders that were scattered all over the battlefield and cast a perplexed look at the small assemblage of people.

"Kiba!" Naruto and Sayuri screeched simultaneously and ran towards the wounded leave-ninja after being sure that Deidara was distracted.

The violet-haired girl reached him first, since Naruto was still a little unsteady on his feet and helped the Inuzuka sit down against the rock he had been leaning at.

"Kiba – what happened to you?!" The young kunoichi asked, while she started to heal the deep laceration on the side of his forehead.

The Inuzuka gritted his teeth and grimaced in pain, as she slightly tilted his head to the side, to catch a better glimpse at his injury, before he hissed through his teeth: "We searched for you and then we met this Akatsukis and they said they had killed you - then Naruto lost control over himself…"

The blonde looked down miserably, already knowing that he must have been the one, who had done this to his friends.

"So they were lying, huh? – But what about Akamaru? And Neji and Ino?" The brown-haired man enquired, before his eyes fell on the other people and a shocked expression invaded his face: "Is that Sasuke over there? Where did he come from? And who are these other people anyway?"

"Not now – do you know where the others are?" Sayuri asked in an urging tone, but the brown-haired man only sighed: "How should I? I've been out of it for the last – I don't even know how long…"

"Well, what do you have your nose for? See if you can smell them!" Naruto incited him, before he jerked his head around, as he perceived the sound of a loud explosion.

Deidara was standing on top of one of the larger boulders, which bounded the main crater and scanned the field in front of him, the one where his bombs had only just exploded, for any movement, but as the smoke had faded there was no one there. Grinding his teeth he turned his head to all sides, still in search for any sign of his opponent, not really believing that he'd been able to kill him by merely using C1-clay. Then he perceived a sudden, but subtle movement with his peripheral vision, merely a slight alteration in the shadows that were surrounding him, so he spun around on his heels and realized that the Uchiha was in the air above him, jumping down with raised katana. A shocked expression appeared in Deidara's eyes but he nevertheless wore a haughty sneer on his face, as he threw another one of his C1-bombs into the air and caused it to explode right in front of the raven-haired man, while he leaped backwards to suffer as little as possible from the force of the detonation. With roaring laughter he landed on the rather smooth and relatively unaffected ground, right next to an uprooted tree and already started preparing his next load of explosives, when he jumped upwards all of a sudden, as a huge broad sword was slammed at his torso-region, but missed it by a hair's breadth. The blonde man narrowed his eyes indignantly and threw a couple of the bombs, he had actually meant for Sasuke, at Suigetsu. As the small spiders creeped up on him, the silver-haired man had at first tried to evade them by running, or rather jumping, away from them, but as they turned out to be rather persistent, he tried to fend them off with his sword, causing them to explode at once.

"Hahaha – that's what I call art, un!" Deidara snickered in amusement, before he turned around again, as two huge shuriken came flying at him. "You won't get me with these!" He jumped up to dodge them and again landed on the rock he had been standing on before. "How about you call off your lapdogs – or can't you handle things on your own?!" A mocking grin appeared on his face, before his eyes flickered to the side as he heard a most familiar noise.

"Sempai! Behind you!" All eyes turned to the Akatsuki, with the orange mask, who had gone completely unnoticed by everyone up to now. Deidara jumped off the rock again, as the shuriken, Sasuke was manipulating with metal wires came back at him, but didn't manage to avoid them entirely. One of the huge throwing-stars hit his shoulder and caused a deep cut to open that even reached down to the bone and disabled the Akatsuki to use his right arm any longer.

Falling to his knees, Deidara shot a resentful glare at the man in front of him and grinded his teeth in anger, as the Uchiha, as well as the rest of his team, even the one that had suffered from his explosion but looked weirdly unharmed, drew closer to him. His eyes wandered rapidly from one person to the next, even though the other three people, except for that white-haired one were still relatively far away, before he rose to his feet again and snorted reproachfully.

"What is it? – Can't you even fight your own battles?!" He barked and stared with rising anger at the raven-haired man in front of him, who still looked as indifferent as ever, not even the scratches and the dirt covering his body diminished the calm atmosphere surrounding him.

"Suigetsu, Juugo – take care of that other one and make sure he won't interfere." Sasuke stated in a nonchalant tone, before he raised his open hand in front of his chest and let his chidori run through it.

"Damn!" Deidara rolled to the side, when a bluish-gleaming chakra blade crushed into the rock behind him, before he took out some of his clay, which he then formed into a bird. The next second, there was a plopping sound and the bird had grown considerably, so the blonde Akatsuki jumped on its back and was in the air again.

Sasuke pointed his chakra-lance upwards, but Deidara was able to escape his assault and was soon so high in the air that he was no longer in his reach.

Juugo and Suigetsu, who looked a little indignant about being put off that bluntly, turned their backs on Sasuke and Deidara and rushed into the direction of the Akatsuki wearing the swirled orange mask.

"Sempaiii!!! What should I do?!" Tobi screeched and scampered about nervously.

"Tobi! You know exactly what to do - don't make me come down and show you!" Deidara barked furiously, before he manoeuvred his bird to the side, as a huge fireball, dashed into his direction and set the belly and the wings of his clay-bird on fire. Emitting an angry hiss, Deidara flew downwards, before he jumped off the birds back and caused it to detonate when it was right above Sasuke.

Meanwhile Tobi had stopped running around, as he realized that the two shinobi were just a couple of metres away from him and just stared at them with wobbly knees, not knowing what to do.

"Think, think…" He muttered the words aloud in an overly nervous manner, until he was hit by a sudden idea and you could literally see a light bulb go on above his head. A second later, right before the other two men had caught up to him, he was up in the next tree and made his escape, the very thing he was best at.

"Wait you coward!" Suigetsu exclaimed in an offended tone and took up the chase at once, as did Juugo, after casting a short glance first at Sasuke, who was still fighting Deidara and then at Sayuri and the other Konoha-nins who were starting to increase in number.

After being reminded of his ability to track people via scent, Kiba had done so and they had found the two other leave-ninjas, as well as Akamaru, without much of a problem.

Neji and Ino had been in a much worse state than the Inuzuka, but they weren't in any mortal danger, so after Sayuri had healed their graver injuries Neji had regained his consciousness again, whereas Ino seemed to be a bit worse off than he was and remained senseless. Akamaru wasn't really hurt either, except for his hind-paw that had been jammed underneath a piece of rock, which had also been the reason why he hadn't been able to get out of there on his own, but now he was again doing pretty well and was merely limping a little bit.

While Sayuri had been busy healing them, Naruto had all the time apologized to them, even though he couldn't quite remember what exactly he had done, and had tried to help his team-mate wherever he could, but as they were all done and they had repeatedly assured him that they didn't blame him for anything, Naruto turned his whole attention back to Sasuke's fight and asked: "What have you been doing with Sasuke?"

Not really knowing what to reply, or better how much would be appropriate, Sayuri began stammering in a rather hesitant and indecisive manner: "I met him in the Land of Rivers and… we fought… and then were attacked and after that they took me with them and…"

"They kidnapped you?!" Neji, who had been filled in on Sasuke's escape, suddenly sat as straight as a post and threw a hateful glare at the Uchiha, who had only just evaded a couple of further explosions.

"No!" Sayuri denied at once and shook her head vehemently, before she cast her eyes down and murmured in a lower voice: "They saved me and even meant to bring me back to Konoha… they aren't the bad guys here…"

"Then why did he fight you?" Neji still wasn't too convinced by her reply, not in the least because he had never really been too fond of the last living member of the rivalling clan.

"Well…" This was the question Sayuri had hoped not to hear. If she would tell them the entire truth that would probably put him in a rather bad light, so she'd just inform them of some selected parts of what had really happened, even though she didn't mean to lie to Naruto – not after that last time… "I attacked him as soon as I saw him…" This wasn't even a lie. "But then we were attacked by the Hagetakas and fought together. "Not a lie either, just a bit of a leap in time… "That's about it."

"You attacked him? – Are you out of your mind?! He's an Uchiha!" The Hyuga rebuked her, but the violet-haired girl only lowered her head instead of replying. "And how come you've been gone for five entire days?" Neji carried on probing and forced Sayuri into a corner, but to her luck Naruto suddenly jumped to his feet and screamed: "Yosh – he did it!!"

All eyes turned upwards to Sasuke and Deidara, who were both standing on Deidara's clay bird, high over their heads. Apparently the Uchiha had been able to sneak up on the Akatsuki from behind and had bored his katana right through his chest, but something was weird about this picture… Something about the way Sasuke's eyes were widened and how his pupils darted from one side to the next, as if in search for something.

"What's going on there?" Naruto muttered, hardly able to stay where he was, what he gave up on anyway, as he perceived how Deidara's body turned to clay and exploded a couple of seconds later, while the sudden, victorious laughter of the real Deidara gave away his actual position, in the trees not far away from where his bird had been flying, which had now detonated as well, ignited by the smaller detonation.

"Sasuke!" Naruto barked and dashed forward, aiming straight for the Akatsuki who was just leaping to the ground, barely a couple of metres away from them, but before the blonde had even reached him, he noticed how Sasuke's body emerged from out of the massive billow of smoke and was now falling to the ground as well.

"Haha!" Deidara kept on laughing, already confident of his victory, when his eyes widened suddenly and a puzzled expression flitted over his face as he sensed something. He cocked his head to the side, merely a couple of metres away from the ground now, as he perceived a bluish light behind him. Before he was able to find out what this was all about though, a sharp pain ran through his right shoulder, the one which had already been wounded by Sasuke's shuriken and then he saw a gleaming ball of squirming blue chakra appear at the place where his arm was supposed to be. Naruto had jumped up behind him and used his Rasengan to attack the Akatsuki, severing his arm by doing so.

A couple of loud thuds were heard, as one by one the three men hit the ground, at least two of them too exhausted or injured to manage a decent landing. Sasuke had landed next to the small assemblage of Konoha-nins, which had now also been joined by the rest of his team, who had only just returned, but no trace of Tobi – it seemed as if running away really was what he was best at…

Naruto stood over Deidara, a little shaky on his feet, but at least standing and peered into his pain-contorted features, before he noticed how Deidara again formed something in his left hand, so he jumped backwards, only just escaping the admittedly tiny explosion.

Sasuke was, same as Deidara, struggling to his feet, Karin and Juugo standing right beside him, regarding him with slightly anxious expressions, but he didn't pay any attention to them, but stared through pitch-black eyes at the Akatsuki in front of him, the indifference in them causing Deidara's blood to boil anew.

"Stop that!" He barked, before he gritted his teeth in anger and hissed through his teeth. "Stop degrading me with that damned bored stare!" His voice became louder again and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, beads of sweat running down his face, along his trembling lips. He didn't move thereafter and just kept staring at Sasuke, rooted to the spot, only his face didn't seem to be subject to this paralysis. His lips were moving, but no sound seemed to pass them, at least non that reached their ears, until his appalled features hardened and he yelled: "I won't loose to any of you!"

After these words he again jumped up into a nearby tree, not hiding this time though, as the tree was entirely naked and was if anything presenting him. Once he stood there, he gripped with his left arm, into the clay-bag on his right side and pulled out all his remaining clay at once. Followed by the deeply shocked and distressed eyes of the people on the ground, he started eating the entire clay and once he was done, the haughty expression returned to his face.

"This is my greatest jutsu! I'll destroy you all!!!" The blonde Akatsuki barked, before he disgorged the white substance again, he had only just consumed. A vast mass formed on the ground, seeming far too huge, for that little clay he had eaten previously and as it piled up further and further, it changed its colour and turned first mainly grey, but then gained some other colours as well and a couple of seconds later the Konoha ninjas, as well as Team Hebi found themselves in front of a gigantic clay copy of Deidara, while the real one now sat, fairly exhausted, on the branch he had jumped at, a trail of saliva running out of the corner of his mouth.

"Shit! He's gonna blow everything up! Get away!" Karin yelled suddenly and already gripped for Sasuke's and even Juugo's arm to pull them backwards, while the others still stood around slightly indecisively, not really knowing what to do.

"Haha, there's no use running! This is my C4-Karura – you can't escape!" He roared with laughter, and watched how now everyone had started backing away from his ultimate weapon, which at once started going after them, making running pointless, just as he had predicted, but that didn't keep them from trying nevertheless. Kiba had picked Ino up and now everyone was following after Karin and the two men she was dragging with her, when they heard how Deidara raised his voice again right behind them, even though they couldn't understand what he said, however his mocking laughter was easily discernible. They kept on running without looking back, fearing that any second of hesitation would be one too many, but no matter how fast they ran, the clay Deidara was always right behind them, until it came to a sudden stop, which didn't relieve them at all though, but made them feel all the more scared, because they didn't know what this change was supposed to mean. Then came the explosion.

…

…


	46. Truth and disappointment

**46.**** Truth and disappointment**

The hollow sound of footsteps reverberated through the deserted corridors of Konoha's hospital. As always at this late time of day there was little activity in this otherwise so busy place. Consequently it was as quiet as in a church. There was merely the drowned out whooshing of the storm outside, which was barely audible through the thick walls of this huge building and the faraway seeming whispers of some night nurses, making their last rounds through their assigned wards. The air was filled with the pungent smell of disinfectants, mixed with that of lemon scented cleansers and rubber gloves, which were all so exemplary for a hospital, as they seemed most suitable in covering up the omnipresent smell of disease and left a stale feeling on one's tongue.

The freshly wiped, dark-brown linoleum shined like a mirror surface under the cold, white light of the unpleasantly buzzing fluorescent lamps and stood in a great contrast to the shabby and dirty grey walls, which even had a slightly greenish tinge to them that only added to their old and worn-out appearance.

Numerous wooden slide-doors, with curved, metallic handles and a small blind window in the upper centre of them, lined the hallway on either side, but merely appeared to be a broad, brown line, to the violet-haired kunoichi, who walked with hasty steps through one deserted corridor after the next, too lost in thoughts to take in much of her surroundings. Thinking about what had happened, had carried her through the entire day and yet there were still more than enough obscurities, which promised to occupy her for at least the next week or maybe even longer… depending on when they would question them…

Four days had passed, since their encounter with the two Akatsukis. Four days since they should have died in the explosion, or whatever it was, because it hadn't been anything like the other ones before it had been. They couldn't even tell what exactly had happened – there had neither been a loud bang, nor an ignition, nor a fire - nothing and yet they had known that something had happened and that they shouldn't have survived this. Obviously they had; every single one of them had been badly injured admittedly, but at least they were alive and no one really knew why… Especially the unusual kind of injury, every single one of them had sustained was rather peculiar and raised a lot of questions… they had all shown some kind of internal burnings; however the source of them was entirely dubious, as their skin had been unharmed for the most part, which meant that the wounds must have come from within their bodies, which was more or less impossible, or just too mysterious to have been figured out just yet…

It had only been this morning that Sayuri had finally woken up. Even with the best medical treatment Konoha could offer, it had taken her four entire days to recover from her injuries. Kiba and Ino were still comatose and Neji had woken up the day before; only Naruto had awoken the very day after they had been brought back to Konoha. Not really surprising, though; he had always been one to recover quickly…

She took a bend and passed through another door, which led into a tiny square room, all of which walls featured a broad double swing door, leading in all directions. The door in front of her, the very one she wanted to go through, was blocked by two ANBU, one wearing a mask which resembled a wolf or maybe a dog, whereas she couldn't quite identify that of the other one, but she was sure that it was some kind of rodent.

They eyed her mutely; with the masks covering their entire faces, it was hard to make out their mood and yet they appeared a little uneasy, at least that's what she guessed from the way the one with the wolf-mask was fidgeting with his fingers, a demeanour which was rather uncommon for one of his profession…

Without saying a word either, Sayuri pulled out the pass, which authorized her to enter the ward on the other side of the door and presented it to the two men. They eyed both her and her pass, sceptically - or that's what she thought at least - for about a minute, before they finally stepped aside and opened the door for her. While packing away the small piece of paper, which she had obtained from the Hokage, after having repeatedly assured her that she really was feeling well enough to take up her work again – which she had gladly done, considering that she was forced to stay in the hospital anyway and didn't have anything better to do - she walked past the two ANBU and found herself in a significantly broader and busier corridor, which also looked much newer and was better lighted than the previous ones. Keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the faraway door on the other end of the hall, she walked past the numerous faceless men, who were entirely rigid, assuming that it were at least twelve of them, well aware that their watchful eyes followed her every movement, until she came to a halt in front of the second last door and turned to the right to face the three masked men, which were positioned in front of it. This time she didn't pull out the pass from before again, but a tiny scroll, she then opened, so that the watchmen could have a good look at it. It was entirely empty, except for an ornate circle, in the middle of it, which didn't really reveal anything, until Sayuri bid into her thumb and let a tiny drip of blood drop down in the centre of the circle. It took a few seconds, but then a message, written in blood red ink started to spread around the ring and formed a spiral around it. Now the ANBU, standing closest to her, took the scroll out of her hands and carefully read through it, paying more attention to the script and the scroll itself, than to its actual contents. In Sayuri's opinion these safety precautions were entirely overdone, but it seemed as if she was rather alone in this opinion, but then she wouldn't have thought it to be otherwise… not after everything that happened…

As her second form of identification passed the surveillance, yet another door was opened for her, just that it didn't lead into another brightly lighted corridor this time, but into a small, dimly lit hospital room. She took a single step inwards and waited, until the door was closed behind her again, before she leaned herself against the cold and smooth surface of the grey steel door and closed her eyes, while she took a deep breath in. Her face was marked by tiredness and exhaustion: her drab complexion, the deep shadows under her slightly reddened eyes, her pale lips, her tousled hair and not to forget the generally weary expression on her face, showed that quite well. You should think that after having slept through four entire days, you would feel rested and restored, but her body was apparently unaware of that and conveyed the feeling that she hadn't slept for ages…

As she opened her eyes again, they at once found their way to the bed which was covered with clean white sheets and stood in the middle of the rectangular room. It was just then, that the sounds of her surroundings, she had been completely unaware of up to then, flooded over her, as if someone had pressed the mute-button to reverse its actual function. She noticed the beeping sound of the EKG, the constant noise of the pouring rain, pelting forcefully against the window and occasionally even the faint rumble of distant, but rapidly approaching thunder.

After taking another deep breath, Sayuri finally pushed herself off the door and walked to stand at the end of the narrow bed. Her eyes were fixed on the EKG monitor standing at the left side of the bed, the smooth, spiky lines telling her that the patient was stable and apparently sound asleep. Then her eyes drifted to the IV to her right, with a big and a slightly smaller bag hanging on its metallic pole. The bigger one was filled with a clear liquid, containing a simple sodium chloride solution, which provided him with 20 drops per minute, just as it was supposed to be, whereas the other bag, the smaller one, was entirely empty.

That's why she was here. She was supposed to refill the soporific. It was a really reliable one, made by the Hokage herself, with a duration of at least five to six hours; that was why they exchanged it every four hours. Another one of the exaggerated safety precautions: they wanted to be sure that they wouldn't wake up before they were ready for it.

With a rustle, Sayuri pulled the frighteningly huge syringe out of her pocket, which contained his medication. As it was still welded in a plastic foil, she just laid it on the sheets at the end of the bed and tilted her head to the side, to catch a glimpse of the annoyingly loud ticking clock, hanging right above the door.

23:48

She was twelve minutes too early. They were really fastidious when it came to their time schedule, so she would have to wait until it was 0:00 precisely, before she could inject the next dose of soporifics. It was easy to lose your sense of time, when you were forced to stay at a particular place, like a specific part of a hospital for example, only allowed to get in contact with a selected group of people, which didn't include your friends or anyone else who would at least talk to you, or who you would like to talk to… They weren't allowed to meet until every single one of them had been interrogated; just to make sure that they wouldn't be able to coordinate their testimonies beforehand… They were careful not to make even the slightest mistake… not after what had happened about a month ago…

A tired sigh parted her lips as she rested her hands on the cold metallic bed posts, before she finally turned her head up to look at the sleeping , lying in the bed in front of her. The room was merely illuminated by the dim artificial light, coming from the tubular halogen lamp right above the bed and the occasional lightning outside, which bathed the entire chamber in a dazzling, eerie gleam. Despite being right above the bedhead, the halogen lamp failed its purpose of lightning up the man underneath it, but seemed to cast even more and deeper shadows onto his face, making him look entirely emaciated and almost unrecognizable.

She stood there for at least a minute, watching Sasuke's contorted, skeleton-like features, while she again became oblivious of all the sounds surrounding her. Her tired blue eyes left his face as another ray of lightning chased the shadows off his face and wandered down to the syringe with the sleeping potion and then back to the round white clock, realizing that she still had nine minutes left.

With slow steps she wandered to the windows and let her eyes roam over the storm haunted village. First she merely saw her reflection, though, that and the rest of the room, but a little less clear. At times she really hated seeing herself on the surface of windows or puddles… these distorted, shallow and transparent reflections of herself seemed to grasp and reflect her actual nature better than any real mirror ever could and right now her semi-alive condition made it even worse…

Crystalline raindrops pelted forcefully against the windowpane and ran down the smooth surface like gleaming black tears, so she closed her eyes to the plaintive sight and leaned her forehead against the glass, enjoying the feeling of the cold material against her warm skin. A chilly waft drifted through the edges of the badly isolated windows - only a poor imitation of the stormy squalls, which raged on the other side of the glass and it didn't really carry any fresh air with it, but rather stirred up the stale air of this room and waved the unpleasant scent into Sayuri's face.

Standing there, she lost herself in the soothing sound of the rain, the cooling touch on her forehead, the familiar odour of hospital disinfectant mingled with that of wet concrete and then the darkness before her closed eyes. Eventually something disrupted her from her trance-like state and dispelled the thick clouds from her consciousness. She didn't know what had caught her attention though and yet she had the feeling that something had changed. Something was different… She pulled her head back a little and watched the wind-shaken tree tops sway hypnotically from side to side, when suddenly an ear-splitting roll of thunder was heard, apparently right above the hospital and caused her to flinch in surprise. It was followed by another bolt of lightning, again casting its glaring white light over the entire room and as it faded, Sayuri again became aware of her own reflection and that of the room behind her – and then there was also that of the man who was staring at her.

Her heart skipped a beat, as she noticed that the head of the actually anaesthetized and therefore absolutely immobile Uchiha-heir was slightly tilted into her direction and she needed a moment to recover from the shock, all the time keeping her eyes fixed on the dark shadows, which hid his equally atreous eyes and obscured them.

"You're supposed to be asleep…" She eventually whispered soberly, still preferring to keep her back turned on her former team-mate and merely watching his reflection.

He didn't comment on her statement, she doubted that he was even able to – not with all the sedatives running through his veins, but then they should have also prevented him from waking up within the next one or two hours and here he was, evidently awake and staring at her. Someone must have meddled with his medication… that was the only explanation for this, but she hadn't been the one to do so… but then who else could have done it? She would have to check who had been in charge of him the last time, but it would be hard to do so without anyone noticing…

A motionless expression adorned her face, easily able to keep up with the one the Uchiha was wearing day in and day out. However her intonation wasn't really able to keep up with his cold and blank one, even though she really gave her best to conceal just how much she was troubled by what she was about to say.

"…You'll leave again, won't you…?"

He neither answered nor made any other gesture that could be construed as an answer to her question. Not that it surprised her, but she nevertheless had to rid herself of all these things… A weary sigh parted Sayuri's lips, causing the glass in front of her mouth to turn white, as her warm breath came upon the cold surface.

"It's what you always do… leaving… isn't it?" Even though she was already whispering, out of fear that the guard post outside would hear her, her voice dropped even lower at these last words, until it was entirely drowned out by the roaring storm.

A faint, rustling sound reached her ears and after a couple of seconds of chastened silence, Sasuke's low, hoarse voice lurched its way through the oppressive atmosphere, which was so typical for a hospital room.

"I can't stay here any longer, you know that…"

"That's not true!" She contradicted him, louder than she had meant to, while she spun around on her heels and finally looked into the coal-black eyes of the last living member of the Uchiha-clan. Concentrating on the door, she tried to find out whether she had been heard or not, but as even after half a minute no one came storming into the room, she was pretty sure that she hadn't, so she focused her attention on Sasuke again and walked to stand at the left side of his bed.

"It's not true…" She reiterated herself, only this time in a much softer tone: "They have no reason to send you away - you didn't betray the village, on the contrary…" She noticed that Sasuke wanted to interrupt her here, so she shook her head, motioning him to let her finish first. "You killed Itachi and if you hadn't come to help us, Deidara would probably still be alive…"

"That wasn't my doing … Deidara killed himself…" He interfered and observed how Sayuri just closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, before carrying on as if he hadn't said anything: "If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have been able to suppress the Kyuubi's chakra and then we would all be dead by now and Naruto would probably be in Akatsukis' hands. Besides, you were also the one who got us out of there, weren't you?"

"…what about the others?" He asked after a couple of seconds, instead of answering her question. However he startled the violet-haired girl slightly, as she wouldn't have assumed him of all people to ask after other people's well being…

"Everyone is fine… it's just Suigetsu…" Sayuri sighed and side-glanced out of the still slightly fogged window again: "His body has taken on a semi-liquid consistency… We don't really know how to treat him…"

"… he needs water…" The Uchiha muttered in a low, husky voice and focused his eyes on the mirror-like window pane as well. A pensive expression flitted over Sayuri's features, as another idea occurred to her, so she turned her head back to the man in the bed and murmured in a hesitant voice: "You are also the most reliable link to Orochimaru, so they-"

"Orochimaru is dead." He proclaimed all of a sudden, but without going into any detail, so his words just floated through the room, but didn't seem to make much sense by themselves.

"What?" Sayuri stared with wide eyes into Sasuke's blank face, before she asked in a slightly tentative voice: "But… when did he…?"

"About three months ago." Sasuke stated in a matter of fact tone, while he watched how a startled expression spread on Sayuri's face.

"…And how?"

"I killed him as he wanted to perform his ritual."

"I… I don't understand this…" Sayuri shook her head to underline her cluelessness, as his dead list grew longer and longer, before she bored her eyes into Sasuke's, who returned the eye contact no less intensively. "Why didn't you say so when you came back? - I mean that would have been good news… that might have made returning for you much easier…"

"It wouldn't." Sasuke sighed, as he noticed how a frown built up on Sayuri's forehead. "As you said, they considered me as a direct link to Orochimaru; that made me useful to them… if they had known he was dead, it would have been one reason less to keep me here."

"You're wrong, they would have been grateful…"

"Gratitude doesn't weigh as much as utility… it's the same now. I'm of no use to them, so they'll want to get rid of me as fast as possible."

Sayuri pondered over his words for a couple of seconds, before she, after some hesitation, half-seated herself on the edge of the bed, feeling a little uneasy though. She just never knew how to behave or how to talk with him… depending on the circumstances and especially the people around, he at times treated her as if she wasn't there at all, whereas he was a completely different person when they were alone… Moistening her dry lips, Sayuri peered into Sasuke's eyes again and raised her voice reluctantly: "… … but let's just say they wouldn't – would you stay here then?"

A long silence followed her question, in which Sayuri wasn't able to keep up the eye contact, but looked at everything else, without moving her head while doing so, hoping that he wouldn't notice, even though she didn't really believe that.

"… No…"

His words eventually dinned through the silence and felt to the young woman as if someone had poured a bucket of ice cold water over her head, catching her entirely off guard. She didn't even know what to say to this, she just stared with a vacant, pallid face at the scribbly lines on the EKG-screen, noticing how Sasuke enclosed her small hand in his cold big one.

"…Why…?" She finally asked in an unnatural tone, not even sure if she really wanted to hear his reasoning, knowing that no matter what he said and how good and plausible his motives might be, it meant that he would go away, so what good would hearing even the best reason do her and just how much worse then would a bad one make it?

"I have obligations towards my team… They helped me to accomplish my goal, now I'll help them with theirs…"

"But you don't have to leave to help them, right? There sure are other ways…"

"I promised Juugo to act as his prison… and even if I should be allowed to stay here, they wouldn't, and after what they have done for me I couldn't abandon them like this…"

"…Oh… I see… " She lowered her head and stared at the dark-brown floor, which turned white for a brief moment as another flash of lightning threw its light into the room. "…so instead of abandoning them, you rather abandon us…"

"Sayuri…" Sasuke sighed and pulled a little at her hand, but she wouldn't do him the favour of turning back to him. "They won't let me stay here, so it's pointless, talking about these things…"

"Right… if you don't even want to, it really doesn't make any sense…" She let her hand slide out of his and turned her head to the other side, so he wouldn't see how her lips had started trembling, as she struggled to maintain her self-control.

"…" He rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration. He had absolutely no idea what she wanted from him and why she was mad at him for something he couldn't change anyway. Were women always like that? Did she want him to lie to her, just so that she could feel better for the time being? "I'm just being realistic, I'm not leaving because I don't want to stay here, but because it's impossible…"

"Hm…" Sayuri closed her sad eyes for a brief moment, before she turned her head even farther around, to have a look at the clock. It was already two minutes past twelve. She slowly got up from the bed and walked to the end of it, all the time followed by Sasuke's inscrutable gaze, where she picked up the syringe, filled with the clear, flavescent liquid and moved towards the IV, without looking at the man next to her.

"I have to refill your sleeping medication, to make sure you won't wake up early…" A wry smile appeared on her lips, but vanished just as fast, again. Funny to think that despite all the exaggerated security measures they have taken, they hadn't even bothered to place a watch within the rooms… Carelessness in the wrong place…

A soft rustle was heard, as she removed the plastic foil and pulled out a big, hollow needle which she then attached to the syringe. While she prepared the infusion, she raised her voice again, still careful to avoid his gaze.

"You'll flee then, right?" She muttered in a hollow, muted voice.

"Hn." He merely nodded and kept his jet black eyes fixed on the profile of her face, not missing the exhausted and above all sad expression she wore.

"When will you do it…?" She finally cast a hesitant glance at him, but its poignant quality didn't leave any doubt about the true purpose behind her question.

"Not before they've made their decision…" He saw a tiny flicker light up her eyes briefly, this was exactly what she had wanted to hear… but that wasn't the reason why he had said that. He actually didn't want to give her reason to hope, when there was none, but it was just the truth. They would keep a too close watch on them to escape just yet, so they would have to wait until the time was right and that was most likely after they've decided on how to deal with them. The best he could hope for was really for them to allow him to stay, because then it would be much easier to free his team-mates, who would without a doubt be arrested. He could tell her that - it would be best for her to know that and yet he couldn't bring himself to do so… and not only because he was sure she already knew that anyway…

His eyes wandered down the tube, which led into his left arm, as the yellowish liquid finally started to flow through it.

"How long till it kicks in?" He murmured quietly and looked up, as Sayuri finally turned around to him again.

"Not long…" She whispered and gazed down at the wrinkled sheets, as she noticed that Sasuke had turned his hand up expectantly. With a sigh, she again leaned herself against the bed and laid her hand into his open palm.

While she stared at it, all the question she still hadn't gotten any answers to ran through her mind and considering that this might be the last time she saw him, she finally found the courage to utter the question, which had occupied and unsettled her the most. Well maybe it wasn't the last time… she had thought that way before and yet they had always seen each other again, so if she'd just keep on thinking it would be the last time, then maybe the really last time wouldn't come this soon…

"Why did you ask me to kill you?" Her thin voice was barely able to reach his ears and he took quite some time to answer her, in which Sayuri kept her eyes firmly fixed on their hands, even though she didn't really see them.

"…I didn't think you would actually do it…"

Her head shot up in surprise, as the quiet was finally disturbed, but she still didn't look at him, but waited for him to carry on talking.

"I was sure you'd say that you couldn't do it and then I thought your reason for not being able to kill me would help me understand why I haven't been able to kill you either… But I guess I've been wrong… you are more cold-blooded than I had thought…" It became harder for him to keep his eyes open, as his mind slowly dozed off, but he nevertheless managed to let a strained smirk raise the corners of his lips lightly.

"…Oh…" Sayuri lowered her head, at a loss of words; this was about the last thing she would have thought of and it made her feel fairly ashamed of what she had done… especially after being confronted with it again.

"Heh…" His smirk grew wider, as he observed her reaction and he again pulled a little at her hand. This time she gave in to him right away and looked into his deep black eyes, seeing that he was close to drifting off. He subtly squeezed her hand again and somehow managed to give a challenging look to his eyes, so she twisted her body to the side a bit and rested her free hand on the pillow next to his face. Her long hair fell over her shoulder, a dark veil that shrouded them from the gaze of anyone who might enter the room. Her perse eyes bored into his coal black ones intensively, as she lowered her head and softly placed her lips on his, until she felt how the soporifics began to set in and his lips became limp, his head falling to the side a little. She pulled her head back a bit and still looked into his calm and placid face, before she got up and turned his hand around again. Then she went to the other side of the bed to pull the sheets over his other arm as well – making sure that he would look the very same way he had, as she had entered the room. Once she was sure that she had cleared all tracks, which might suggest an alteration in his status, she looked down into his face again and gently brushed a dishevelled strand of his dark hair out of his face. Heaving a weary sigh, she closed her eyes for a moment to recollect herself, before she planted another faint kiss on his forehead and again rose to her feet.

Running a hand through her hair in distress, she forced herself to take some further long, deep breaths, before she finally walked towards the door and knocked on it, the way they had agreed upon, to prepare the guards that she was coming out.

The bright, obtrusive neon light flooded into the room, as soon as the door was opened a crack and surged at Sayuri like a tidal wave, causing her to freeze on the spot and narrow her burning eyes reflexively. The incident light was interrupted as a huge man appeared in front of the half opened door, filling the rectangular opening entirely. Sayuri blinked confusedly as her eyes were met by darkness again, before she raised her head and walked through the door, closing it behind her.

"That took some time." One of the masked-men stated with a suspicious and maybe even accusing undercurrent in his voice.

"Hmm…" She murmured distractedly and walked past the numerous faceless-men without saying another word.

…

…


	47. Selfconfession

**47.**** Self-confession**

It was all there. Even though Sayuri was in a different room, on a different level, in a different wing of the huge hospital building, everything remained the same.

She could still hear the persistent, clangorous beating of the rain against the unyielding window pane and the whooshing of the blustering wind, impatiently murmuring enticing pleas to beseech the glass barrier to let it through… Not to forget the permanent, nerve-wrecking ticking of the neglectful clock, which was apparently counting down the seconds – minutes - hours until dawn, but forgot to move its pointers for doing so.

The dim neon light above her bed was set to night-mode, but its flickering went along with way too loud a sound to be solely limited to a visual perception and then there was also the rustling of the sheets, as she was tossing and turning on her saggy mattress, with the creaking and stitching springs, in search for sleep, only that the restless movement distanced her even more from that languorous state of mind, she yearned for so dearly.

The air was filled with the repugnant and yet somehow beguiling scent of the typical hospital disinfectants, which succeeded in wrapping your mind in a dazing cloud of formaldehyde-soaked cotton balls, and made your head feel far too airy to actually stay awake… And yet that's exactly what she did. Staying awake.

She had no idea what time it was – she didn't dare to look at the clock, because actually seeing how little time she still had left to fall asleep, would upset her more than merely assuming it, which after all included the chance of her being mistaken, so it would make it almost impossible for her to turn off her mind then. But she was sure that it was at least 3 a.m. and considering that her interrogation would start no sooner than seven o' clock, there was still _pleenntyy_ of time for her to fall asleep. At least that's what she kept telling herself over and over again, in the vain attempt of bringing her mind to its knees by positive thinking.

Didn't really work though… The fact alone that she kept telling herself that she should fall asleep, kept her mind from resting, but it just seemed impossible to shut it off.

With a sigh, she rolled around to lie on her back and stared at the shadowy ceiling, before she closed, opened, and then closed her eyes again, pressing her hands over her face, to keep them from fluttering open again. Her eyelids were lead weights and drew heavy over her dry, burning eyes and yet they always sprang apart again, as if someone of an utmost wicked and sadistic nature, had inserted coil springs between them.

The seconds were counting down, the storm was passing by and her mind raced on, always drifting back to tomorrow's interrogation, even though she had already spent far too many thoughts on it and had meant to leave it at that. So much to her plans…

But it really was a precarious situation…

The chances that it was Ibiki, who was going to interrogate her, were rather high and she knew of Ibiki's reputation… she had been witness to quite a lot of his questionings, so she knew that she wouldn't have a chance of lying to him, without being caught by doing so… especially not considering how bad a liar she was most of the time … She didn't plan on lying anyway, there were just some things she wasn't willing to tell him, so she hoped he wouldn't ask questions that would aim at them…

There was for example no way that she could tell him about Sasuke's planned escape attempt. Even though she wanted him to stay here more than anything else, she was in no position to force him to do so against his will, or to interfere in his plans and possibly even confound them… She just hoped they would pose the right questions… maybe then she could get through the entire questioning without prattling away…

She would try to present him, as well as the rest of his team, in as good a light as she possibly could, hoping that they would decide to let them stay here, even though the odds were clearly against that… It would only be of advantage to Sasuke - he could then either stay here (that would be what she not so secretly hoped for) or it would make it much easier for him to run off again… That was about everything she could do for him…

A tired sigh passed through her lips and she dropped her hands down again, as the blood slowly started to flow out of her fingers and left a weird, numb feeling in them.

Sleep was weaving ever tighter webs around her, tainting both her body and her mind with its narcotic poison and yet she somehow managed to slip even through the tightest meshes and remained in a semi-conscious state.

Leisurely, she stared at the windows to her right, seeing nothing more than the dense, corporeal darkness, pressing against the window in the attempt to squeeze through it and consume even the poor little light in this room, which was clearly defying its regency.

Her vision started swimming, her lids fluttered half-closed, but in the blurriness of her perception, the exterior wall suddenly looked like a grim face, with its two venomously gleaming, black window-eyes and its broad row of sharp, bared radiator teeth, right in the middle of them. Her reddened eyes pried open at once and her brain was on full alert yet again – something she could kick herself for. It was so predictable that her tired mind had to invent some stupid phantoms, at the very moment she was balancing on the verge of sleep, already preparing to let herself fall into the deep, bottomless abyss, which promised her the little death of a night-time rest.

Another roll of thunder sounded, farther away now, but still loud enough to cause the violet-haired girl to sit bolt upright in her bed, as it was the first sound other than the ones mentioned afore in quite some time. She had thought the storm had long passed by now, but as it seemed it was going for a rerun. Perfect.

She averted her eyes from the maliciously sneering wall and focused them on the ceiling instead. She was long through with counting the various brown water-stains on it, which reminded a little of annual rings. There were 23. And judging from how many rings some of them had themselves, she was without a doubt in an older, less cared-for part of the hospital…

Instead of re-counting the circular spots, or even the further circular spots in them for yet another time, she fixed her eyes on the numerous lively shadows, dancing across the walls and ceiling and gave in to let herself be amused by the galanty show, they performed for her, but only because there was no one else who might cherish its sight. The wall-face perhaps, but it didn't really look too keen on doing anything else than glaring at her…

There was no more thunder, or so she thought, but it was hard to tell with the silence growing louder, denser and more oppressive each passing second. It felt as if she would drown in a sea of white noise, which was pounding against her head in the rhythm of her racing heartbeat. The ticking of the clock, the pelting of the rain and whatever else there was, was drowned out as silence screamed at the top of its lungs, until Sayuri's ears thudded with a frightening deafness and she felt close to screaming back at the quietness, just to break through that ever-present, unvarying din and make sure that the world hadn't gone mute or that she hadn't gone deaf.

She pulled the thick blanket over her head, wrapping it around herself like a sheltering cocoon, with the purpose of shielding her from all the sights, sounds and even smells that kept her from falling asleep, but with half of her senses blocked out, her mind took control once more and here she was again, thinking about the very things she was trying so hard to repress or better still forget… It wasn't even tomorrow's or rather today's interrogation, which unsettled her so much, but rather what would happen after that…

He would leave again, just because his new team apparently meant more to him than they did… What a sobering thought, considering that he knew them much longer than he did those people… She didn't even know why it surprised her so much… going through difficult situations together formed the strongest bonds and after all it had been his new team that had helped him kill Itachi, which had without a doubt been the most important thing in his life, so his loyalty towards them was understandable – even if it meant leaving against his will…

Yes, against his will, he had indicated that he'd rather stay, but not without them… That was the only way for him, but it was impossible, he'd been right about that. They would definitely not be allowed to stay here – they had never been citizen of Konoha or done anything else for the village… but if they couldn't prove them guilty of anything, maybe they would just let them go then, and maybe one day, when the furor had died down…

No. That would never happen, but even if, she couldn't live with it… at least not if she'd keep feeling the way she did now… it was weird, in the last years, she had wanted him to return, just for the sake of him being back, but now, she wanted him to stay, because she missed being with him. What sense did that make? She had been with him the last week (minus the time she was unconscious), but except for some rather transitory occasions, it wouldn't have made any difference if he hadn't been there and yet it had.

Now that she was all alone and tired and anxious it really did make a difference. Maybe it was just her level of exhaustion that made her feel that way, or that enhanced these weird, indefinable and muddled feelings she had – she was seeing faces in the wall! – what better proof was there? She wasn't someone who tended to go all sentimental and lovestoned and who would miss another person after hardly more than a few hours of separation – that just didn't fit to the kind of person she thought she was – she just didn't miss people, not in that way at least… She was glad of course, when she was with the people she liked and thought a lot about them when they weren't there, but up to now, she had never felt the urgent desire to be with someone and had wanted that person to want to be with her too… It were these insecurities that were worst about all this… Not knowing what would happen, not knowing how he felt about her, not even knowing what she felt herself…

With a frustrated moan, Sayuri threw back the covers and started massaging her sleeves, before she laid one of her icy hands on her forehead, which felt as if it was on fire. Her fingers wandered through her hair and she eventually succumbed to her curiosity and side-glanced at the clock.

5:23

It was even later than she had thought. Maybe it was good that she would attend her interrogation looking and especially feeling like a corpse, this way her features and heartbeat wouldn't really give away her state of mind. Or maybe it worked the other way around… She really didn't know – she was just too tired and worn out to think straight or to bring order into her emotional chaos and the jumble of thoughts that was whirling through her mind like a thunderstorm, leaving only one clear thought in the calm, unmolested centre of it and that was her fervent wish for sleep.

It was too late for that though, so she surrendered to the restless night and unwrapped the blanket from around her shaky body. She swung her slender legs over the edge of the high bed, where she let her feet tangle back and forth, as she waited for her circulation to stabilize. As the blood finally rushed out of her head and spread evenly through her entire body, she let her head drop between her shoulders and fixed her gaze on her bare feet, before she eventually slid down from the bed and placed them on the cold, smooth floor.

The hollow sound of her steps, as she walked towards the small bathroom, relieved her ears a little of the horrific, maddening torture, as it pushed back the crackling echo of static, which bounced forth from wall to wall only to hit her ever harder in the next attempt.

Like a mindless zombie she shuffled into the yellow-green tiled bathroom and groped almost mechanically for the light switch. With a buzzing and sizzling sound the white, artificial light came on, brighter than she would have thought possible, so she pressed her eyes shut and let out a suffering moan – this was how she imagined a really bad hang-over had to feel like…

Dragging herself to the shiny eggshell-white sink, she placed both her trembling hands on its cold porcelain rim, before she lowered her head and turned the water on. She splashed some of the freezing cold liquid into her burning face, feeling how the coldness ran through her entire body, but didn't cool down the burning skin of her face, before she turned the water off again and placed one of her now even colder hands in her neck, already feeling a layer of goose-bumps wander down her back. Her hand moved back to the sink again, as she finally turned her head up to look into the mirror. Her skin had an ashen complexion to it, going along with a sickly tinge of green, but she didn't know if that was genuine, or if it was just a reflection of the shabby, khaki coloured walls. Her lips were dry and drained of all colour and insomnia had drawn dark circles around her eyes, without her having noticed it… Eventually she averted her gaze from her unfavourable reflection and side-glanced into a hideous blur of yellowish-green, brown and grey colours, which reminded her of dried mud – nothing bad or repulsive in itself, but it just wasn't something you wanted to have on your walls…

Still shivering from exhaustion and the cold, that had taken dominion over every part of her body which was below head-height, Sayuri scuffed to the small shower, with the apparently new, mud-taupe shower curtain and the escargot-brown mat in front of it. Too exhausted to even roll her eyes at the weird taste of the interior decorator, or maybe her own interpretation of the leitmotif that was clearly running through this small room, Sayuri pulled back the paper-thin curtain, which also felt equally crisp and brittle and stepped into the spotless, again eggshell-white shower base, at once pulling back the curtain to shut herself again in comforting, though not perfect darkness, which was far easier to the eyes than these pungent, flickering neon lights. She went for the water tap right away, only to realize that she was still fully dressed, when her clothes had already grown heavy from all the water they had soaked up.

Again feeling the need to kick herself, Sayuri let out a frustrated sigh and began taking her clothes off under the running shower, before she tossed them on the rack on which the curtain was hanging, perceiving a smacking sound, as loads of water pounded against the muddy olive wall – she only hoped that she hadn't just contributed to turning the bathroom into an actual mire…

The harsh flow of warm water poured over her body and yet she was still shaking, so she turned the water to a warmer setting, until it almost burned her skin. There was no pain though, just… nothing. Even though nested patterns of red had already started crawling over her skin and it was again covered with goose-bumps.

The air was filled with dense steam, only adding to the humid atmosphere of this room. She grew even more tired than before and her knees felt as if they were close to slipping from beneath her, so she pressed her back against the cold tiles behind her and slid down, until she cowered on the bottom of the shower. Her head remained leaned against the cooling tiles, while she tucked her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. Closing her eyes, she tried to block out all thoughts and just submitted to the feeling of the hot, purifying water, pouring down her skin and cleaning her of all the traces of exhaustion and sorrow.

It didn't seem to work this way though… Even though she tried to visualize how all the unpleasant thoughts, feelings and whatever else there was, vanished along with the water in the small black hole and fell into oblivion, as unimportant and forgotten as the countless drops of water, which had treaded the same path and were no longer thought of, too, but she still felt bad and her head grew heavier… and h e a v i e r… …

… …

'_Bang-bang'_

"Sayuri-san? – Are you in there?" A voice suddenly sounded on the other side of the door and went along with ever louder hammering.

With quite some effort Sayuri pried her eyes open, and stared with a perplexed expression at the mud-brown shower curtain. She must have fallen asleep after all… Dazedly she raised her arm up and groped for the water tap, to turn off the already fairly cold water, before she tried to sit up straight, which wasn't exactly easy, as the right side of her face seemed to have fused with the tiles it had been leaned against, so severing it from the wall turned out to be a rather painful endeavour…

She grimaced, as she had finally succeeded in separating herself from the silt wall – if she hadn't woken up, it would have probably swallowed her whole, but this way she got off cheaply, with merely the pattern of the small, sharp tiles imprinted into her skin.

"Sayuri-san?" Again that toneless voice, she couldn't really identify.

"I'm here…" She finally murmured, but wasn't really sure if her volume would be sufficient to carry her massage to the other side of the door… Still fairly drowsy, she led her hand to her right cheek and ran her fingers over the indented relief; a reminder of why people usually didn't sleep in showers…

"Your interrogation starts in 10 minutes…" The unfamiliar voice informed her and died out after that.

Merely 10 minutes… she had to hurry if she wanted to make it in time and yet she seemed unable to get up. She kept sitting on the cold floor of the shower stall and stared at the small vortex which had formed right above the drain. Watching the water stream in clockwise circles around the small, dark hole had an almost hypnotic effect on her and helped clearing her head of all the redundant and obtrusive thoughts, but it also took away all the other thoughts, so once even the last bit of water had vanished inside the black abyss and Sayuri finally rose to her feet, all her plans about what she was going to say during her interrogation were gone as well… A really bad timing for premature Alzheimer's…

Barely wrapped in a towel, Sayuri stepped out of the bathroom and went to the wardrobe to change into some dry clothes, when she heard how the door was opened.

"What are you doing? There are barely three minutes left! Hurry up!" It was the same voice again and now Sayuri finally, recognized the nurse it belonged to. She didn't really know her, not even her name, but she was sure that she had even worked with her once…

"Just a second…" The young kunoichi muttered as she pulled a thick pullover over the one she was already wearing and pushed her still wet hair out of her face, to tie it up. As she thought she was done, she closed her eyes for a brief moment and exhaled noisily, already beginning to feel the nervousness spread throughout every fibre of her body, but she nevertheless remained entirely calm and composed on the outside, if you disregarded her just-out-of-bed hair and her still-half-asleep eyes…

Like a condemned prisoner on her last walk, Sayuri walked through the numerous corridors with lowered head, trying desperately to dig the thoughts concerning her strategy out of the depths of her mind, but it was pointless as they had clearly been washed down the drain, when she was already standing in front of a big, dark grey door, which already looked uninviting from the outside and repelled her from entering… She didn't get to choose though; the nurse which had picked her up from her room and had silently walked beside her the entire time, pushed the door open and kindly shoved her inside without any prior warning.

The loud murmuring which had filled the room beforehand fell quiet at once, as Sayuri took the first reluctant steps forward and found herself in a big, operating theatre like hall, the rear part at least halfway filled with both standing and sitting people. Probably twenty or thirty of them… Great - as if she hadn't been nervous enough already, she really didn't need stage fright right now…

The violet-haired girl came to a stop again, really feeling like a death sentencee, with all these bystanders here to witness her execution with feigned consternation, which would yield to perverse pleasure once they left the room again…

This was just a first image though, as she finally took a couple of further steps towards the table, which was placed right in the middle of the room and at which no other than Ibiki sat, she recognized some of the faces in the crowd. There was Tsunade of course, with Shizune and Sakura standing right next to her and there were Kakashi and Yamato, too, same as Shikamaru. So much to the well-disposed faces. There were others too, like the elders, who looked as grim and adamant as usual and some of the other upper class personalities and those who were in charge of other important offices… the same people you would always see at those pretentious public banquets and who thought themselves to be far more important than they actually were…

She sat down on the chair that was clearly meant for her, all too aware of the restrained whispering and the numerous curious pairs of eyes, which followed her every movement in search for material to fuel their excessive craving for sensation even more.

"You are late." Danzô, the leader of the ANBU-section _root_, who was sitting close to Tsunade, raised his composed and yet uncannily callous voice. As usually half of his face and his right arm were wrapped in bandages, to cover wounds that seemed to never heal…

"As you doubtlessly know, we expect a lot from your testimony." This time it was Koharu, a member of Konoha's council, who addressed her. She looked like a typical grandmother, but not the nice kind of grandma who would bake a pie for you and help you fix your clothes when you tore them, but rather the kind of grim _elderly woman_, who'd chase you off her front lawn or who'd grouse and confiscate your ball when it had only gotten anywhere close to her house…

Sayuri cast a fleeting look into her direction, before she turned her eyes down again and stared at the mirror like surface of the brightly polished metal table, seeing that her cheek was still embellished by some criss-cross lines that had turned red by now, as had the skin around them too, only in a much paler shade, but it made the right side of her face look a little puffy…

"You may begin then." Tsunade nodded at Ibiki, who then cleared his throat and bored his piercing eyes into Sayuri's, as she looked up at him. He didn't say anything, didn't ask her a single question… all he did was staring at her through these gleaming, black beetle eyes. That was one of his tactics - Sayuri had seen it before, he mainly used it on people he thought he'd be able to intimidate in that way and it definitely worked… Even though his gaze was entirely blank, Sayuri couldn't help but to think he was somehow ill-disposed towards her - as if he'd do anything to make her fall through this interrogation, even though she wasn't even the accused one here.

She tried to keep up the eye-contact, but it just wouldn't work, her eyes seemed to be drawn to the numerous scars covering his face, whenever she let her concentration slip. She had heard numerous rumours about the origins of these scars… the most disturbing ones implied that he had caused some of them himself, to experience and get used to the pain, so that he could even resist the cruellest of all tortures without giving in…

The room was so quiet, that you could have heard a feather drop, everyone holding their breaths in anticipation for the interrogation to finally start, so when Ibiki finally raised his voice, the CO2 concentration in the bleak room seemed to double as everyone exhaled simultaneously.

"You are the third person to be questioned about what happened in the past couple of days, with special consideration of Uchiha Sasuke and in how far he was involved in all this. Therefore I advise you to be explicit and truthful in your illustrations, otherwise you're in danger of losing your credibility."

Sayuri's eyes turned upwards at once and she nodded slightly. Another one of his strategies she had seen quite some times before - didn't really help to ease the uneasy feeling that was spreading throughout her entire body, though.

"Your role in the past events is rather dubious… I'll start with asking you a couple of questions and you will either answer with a '_yes'_ or a '_no'_. Understood?" The Morino folded his arms on the table and stared expectantly at the young woman in front of him.

"Yes…" Sayuri nodded and cursed herself for already sounding so insecure and hesitant, even though the real questioning hadn't even gotten started yet.

"10 weeks and two days ago, you were the one to bring back Uchiha Sasuke to Konoha."

"Yes."

"You found him in the mountains outside of Konoha."

"Yes."

"You stated that he'd been badly injured when you found him."

"Yes"

"What have you been doing outside of Konoha in the middle of night?"

Sayuri's head turned up a little and she wore a startled expression on her face, as this was definitely not a simple polar-question...

"I took a walk…" This sounded rather like a question than a statement, but apparently this was exactly what Ibiki had aimed at with this, because the corners of his mouth turned up a little and he asked the next question without reacting to her answer.

"Have you ever regretted your decision of bringing him back?"

Sayuri's eyes widened slightly and she was getting noticeably more nervous from second to second. Had she ever regretted it? She had never thought about it that way… She hadn't… or had she? On a personal level maybe, but not considering what they were driving at; he has never been a danger to Konoha so the answer would be no.

"No…" She tried sounding as convincing as possible, but the mere fact that she had taken nearly a minute to think over her answer must have appeared rather suspicious…

"So it is not true that you have noticed his absence one night?"

"No… I mean… it's not '_not true'_…" She shifted around on her chair, fixing her gaze on the table again, before she forced herself to look back at Ibiki and his narrowed, gleaming black eyes… the grim expression on his face… the scars all over his skin…

"Hn." He snorted and cast a weird look at her. "And you've kept it secret until he was gone."

"… Yes…" She lowered her head again… this wasn't going the way she had thought it would… she had prepared for defending Sasuke and his team in front of the Morino, but instead it seemed as if she was the one who was being accused here…

"So you've been the one to find him two and a half month ago and you also found him 10 days ago, is that correct?"

"Yes." Another subdued murmur echoed through the room and Sayuri could feel her heart run amok and her thoughts buzz through her head, as the questions became ever more accusing.

"And it's true that you fought him?" Ibiki's eyes were mere slits as he asked that and yet again a veil of anticipating silence had descended upon the room.

"Yes."

"And still you are alive…"

Sayuri averted her eyes and looked at the book-laden shelve at the faraway wall on the eastern side of the room, before she again nodded slightly without saying anything though.

"Hm…" Ibiki murmured and watched her closely, before he turned his gaze towards the Hokage, or more likely towards the council members, who nodded grimly and caused him to turn back to the girl in front of him.

"Now answer more precisely: Do you know anything about the Uchiha's reason for staying in Konoha?"

"I do…" Sayuri nodded and once again focussed her gaze on the Morino, trying to look as earnest and trustworthy as she could.

"You do…?!" This time it wasn't Ibiki, but Sakura to raise her voice and therewith drew everyone's attention to herself, which was only welcomed by Sayuri, because it gave her at least a couple of seconds to breathe through and clear her head.

Not reacting in any way to the interruption, Ibiki nodded at the young kunoichi and murmured: "Go ahead."

After taking a deep breath, Sayuri straightened herself on her seat, as she had noticeably shrunken down in the last couple of seconds and then began with her elucidations, trying to keep them as brief as possible: "He came back here for Itachi…" She started but was interrupted as an agitated and no longer quiet murmur arose among the audience.

"Why would he come to Konoha, when he searched for his brother?" Ibiki uttered the question, which probably occupied the minds of every single person in this room.

"In the past Itachi has been after Naruto, so he thought he might come back for him… Besides, he also heard of an Akatsuki-spy, who had been infiltrated into Konoha, so he hoped to learn more about Itachi's whereabouts from that one …"

"A spy?!" Someone in the back asked into the room and once again a wild discussion broke loose. Apparently the prospect of a spy in their midst, unsettled the people far more than Sayuri would have thought… Shifting her eyes from one side to the other in an uneasy manner, the violet-haired girl waited for silence to return, which was sped up, as Ibiki raised up an arm in a fairly distinct gesture.

"They've had information about a spy in Konoha?"

"Yes… but I don't know where they got those from…" Sayuri murmured and noticed that Tsunade's face had turned noticeably pale, which was only emphasized by the aghast expression she wore and the elders (except for Danzô) looked rather dismayed, too.

As she directed her gaze back to Ibiki, she realized that his eyes were narrowed somewhat disapprovingly, as if he wouldn't believe her, even though she shouldn't mind that too much, as every single one of his actions was well thought through and meant to stir the right emotions in the person he was interrogating…

"What happened then?" He eventually asked, still with an apparent frown on his forehead.

"Well, they must have found him, in the night Sasuke left, so I guess he's had all the information they wanted…" The violet-haired girl answered in a hesitant voice and then moistened her lips before she carried on: "…either way, he found Itachi and he was able to kill him…"

Yet again a taut silence filled the room, not for long though as a most familiar voice arose suddenly.

"I _so_ knew he would do it! – There you go – he didn't betray us!"

Sayuri's head spun around in an instant and her at once wide awake pupils wandered over the colourful sea of heads until she saw an easily spottable shock of bright blonde hair in the farthest away corner of the room.

"Naruto…" A tiny smile flickered over her face as she added two further people to her well-disposed-list. Naruto and Neji were standing in the back row of the crowd; that had probably been the only way for them to attend her interrogation at all, considering that utmost-secrecy-thing…

As if Naruto's interjection had been a starting signal, an animate discussion broke loose throughout the entire room and this time Ibiki wasn't able to silence them by merely lifting his arm. Sayuri's eyes roamed from one wildly arguing group of people to the next, trying to pick up anything of what they were saying, which turned out to be an impossible task as everyone was talking across each other. She noticed that Tsunade's former paleness had yielded to a vivid flush and she was at the moment talking to Sakura and Shizune. The pink-haired kunoichi wore a light, insecure smile on her face, which grew wider though, as she glanced to the side and found her team-mate looking at her. Sayuri reciprocated her smile with a strained one of her own. It was obvious that Sakura had raised her hopes again after hearing about Itachi, same as Naruto, too - how much it would hurt them to know that he'd leave again…

Her eyes drifted down to the blank surface of the metallic table again, while the smile slowly faded from her face – something that didn't go unnoticed by the Morino.

"Silence!" Ibiki suddenly barked and even caught the council members off guard with his sudden interference in their conversation – however his demand seemed to have its intended effect, as everyone fell perfectly quiet at once.

"Good…" He muttered, before he turned his attention back to Sayuri and again scrutinized her with a disturbingly piercing gaze. "Your choice of words indicates that you're merely speculating… Even if that is what they told you, who tells you that they didn't just lie?"

"Hm… I don't know… it didn't sound like a lie…" The violet-haired kunoichi again shrunk down in her chair, all too aware of all these critical, expectant and here and there even hopeful eyes resting on her.

"Orochimaru is known for his mind-games, maybe this is all just a trick-"

"No!" Sayuri cut him off brusquely, but fell quiet again, as she saw the indignant look in her opposite's eyes; he didn't like being interrupted, that much was clear… "This has nothing to do with Orochimaru…" She added after swallowing hard and picking up her courage again.

"What makes you so sure about that?" Ibiki enquired coldly, before she even had the chance of carrying on explaining.

"Because Orochimaru is dead." Her perse eyes remained focused on the Morino's small black ones, before her gaze travelled past him and searched for her team-mates amid the crowd. Everything was perfectly silent, a bit confusing at this part of the interrogation, especially if you considered how they had reacted to things that were trifles in comparison…

Sakura had a weird look on her face, her eyes were filled with disbelieve and maybe even denial, whereas the corners of her lips were slowly but surely rising upwards, already beyond all doubts.

Naruto's mouth hung open in sheer surprise, as if he was emitting a toneless laugh and he was pounding a fist into the air, unbothered by the grousing of the elderly man next to him.

This was getting ever worse: the people she didn't want to convince seemed to believe her every word, whereas the people she was supposed to win over remained completely unimpressed by what she was saying…

"Do you have any proof for that?" Ibiki's voice eventually reached her and snapped her back to reality.

"…Proof…?" She didn't have any proof. Most of the things she told them were based on what they had told her… Or maybe…

"Am I right to assume that this is again merely a speculation?" The Morino probed and earned to his surprise a hesitant shake of the head by the girl in front of him.

"The jûin is gone." She only just remembered that - she had noticed it before, but hadn't really been sure about it and she hadn't asked either… but this is something they could easily check – at least something to support her story… at least if she wasn't mistaken…

Again a soft murmuring filled the room and Sayuri was even sure that she perceived some subdued chuckling, coming from somewhere in the back of the room, but she couldn't tell for sure as her full attention was focused on Ibiki, who seemed to mull over his way of proceeding right now…

"Tell me something about the people he travels with." He enquired eventually and now rather grim expressions returned even to Naruto's and Sakura's faces…

"Well… there is Karin, I think she was a subordinate to Orochimaru, but she decided to follow Sasuke… I don't know why though. She is a very talented chakra-sensing type and I think she is a medic-nin, too, but I don't know for sure." Sayuri trailed off and just stared at the table in front of her, before she tilted up her head again and carried on. "Then there is also Suigetsu, he can turn his entire body to water, uhm and I think he is with Sasuke because of a sword or something…"

A sceptical cough sounded somewhere among the crowd, but Ibiki just nodded at her, gesturing for her to carry on talking.

"The last one would be Juugo. He is the origin of the cursed-seal and he suffers a lot from it. At times he is overwhelmed by it and loses control over himself… that's why he is with Sasuke… he acts as a prison for him and keeps him from harming anyone…" This was about the mildest way of saying, he at times turned into a mindless killing-machine, but it still sounded rather bad…

There were more sceptical sounds, but apart from that utter silence, they were still curious about what she had to say and from the way Ibiki was just cracking his knuckles and made himself comfortable on his chair, she guessed that they still had a rather long sitting ahead of them.

…

…

There were no more faces or annual rings - reality had returned to the small hospital room in the northern wing of the fourth floor. Daylight, or light in general made you see the world from a different angle, couldn't really fight exhaustion though, just helped a little with ignoring it…

It was already late noon, or maybe early afternoon – matter of opinion – and Sayuri was again lying on her bed, even though that was the place where she had spent countless hours (well, actually just four, but they had felt like eternity…) of severe mind torture and yet she was drawn back here to go through that same cycle all over again…

Not quite the same cycle; she didn't even try to fall asleep now, not after her interrogation, which had just ended about one and a half hours earlier and hadn't really gone the way she had planned it to, to put it mildly… It had been a complete disaster would be more accurate, but this wasn't the time for excessive pessimism… (sadly she wasn't being pessimistic here, but utterly realistic, but her new friend called self-deception made it just so much easier to deal with these kinds of unpleasant things…)

After some initial difficulties, things had really improved: after she had told them about the spy, Itachi and especially about how they had saved them from Deidara - it had really seemed as if she had been able to convince them of her story and their '_innocence'_. That's how it had probably been, at least until Danzô had interfered… after that her credibility had slowly but surely gotten lost, somewhere between a few awkward blanks, in which she had been at a complete loss for anything to say and after some excessive and unstructured torrents of words, as she had been so flustered that she had tried to verbalize all the thoughts that had raced through her head simultaneously, resulting in an absolute mess of incomprehensible sounds and scraps of words. At some points she had even been afraid of being locked away right with them… for example as they had uncovered her evil deeds as a mole for Sasuke in Konoha, or when she had suddenly become the master mind of a huge organization, aiming for the destruction of Konoha… if Tsunade hadn't interfered and told them how ridiculous these accusations were, who knew in what hole she would be left to rot now…

Maybe she had been able to win over at least a few of the auditors, but that didn't really matter too much as the council members were obviously against her… hopefully she had at least convinced Tsunade and especially Ibiki, if he believed her he could maybe change the minds of the elders as well, even though the chances for that were rather slim, not to say non-existent…

It wasn't a losing battle yet, though. She doubted that they would put more weight on the result of her questioning than on those of the others, whose interrogations would take place in the course of this week, so maybe by the end of it, they'd know what to do with them…but their interrogations would probably be even harder than hers had been… after all they hadn't even used one of their special jutsus on her, but had kept everything to a merely psychological approach - with them it would probably be different; maybe they'd let someone of the Yamanaka-clan meddle with their brains and who knows what they would uncover then… but no matter what it was, they couldn't defy its truth content then, so in case they found out that they had never meant to harm Konoha and hadn't lied about any of the things she had just told them about, they had to believe them then, hadn't they?

A frustrated sigh parted Sayuri's lips, before she rolled to the side and raised her knees up, her blank eyes following a dark cloud of birds on the other side of the window, which were flying in ever changing formations through the dreary, cinereous sky. Loosing herself in their caleidoscopic patterns, Sayuri didn't perceive the knock which sounded through the tiny room and was after some apparent hesitation followed by the cracking of the door being opened and then the quiet clacking of approaching footsteps.

"Sayuri?"

A brief twitch went through the violet-haired girl's entire body and her gaze became focused again, but remained nevertheless directed out of the window.

Further footsteps were heard and now Sayuri finally looked over her shoulder to see who had entered the room.

"Sakura…?" She murmured a little startled and sat up on the ruffled sheets of the narrow bed, from where she cast a questioning glance at her team-mate.

"You have a minute… or maybe more?" The pink-haired kunoichi asked in a quiet voice and received a silent nod in response. An inscrutable expression clouded her face, as she observed how her team-mate moved to sit at the head of the bed to make room for her.

"You look tired…" Sakura stated as she sat down on the bed as well and leaned her back against the metallic bed railing at the foot of it. Another silent nod was all she received for an answer, that and a rather questioning look from her opposite. Sighing she closed her eyes for a moment or two and then came right to the point: "Is it true… did he really just leave because of Itachi?"

"…Uh-huh" Sayuri sighed, nodding her head wearily and scrutinized the girl in front of her, who looked so cheerful right now, with a rather downcast expression. "But it's also the only reason why he came here at all…" She added with a saddened undercurrent in her voice and observed how Sakura cocked her head to the side, to avoid her gaze and looked out of the window instead.

It still hurt her to hear that, even though she tried not to show it, her face gave her emotions away quite well. Sayuri had known that she hadn't meant it, when she had said that Sasuke was dead for her… and yet she wished it had been different… it would be easier if she had given up on him – easier for everyone. Sakura wouldn't suffer then, after he was gone again and she wouldn't have a guilty conscience – even though she didn't think there was any way around that… She hadn't even thought about that… about how much Sakura - one of her best friends – felt for the man she herself had feelings for, too. They had quarrelled over him before; or rather Sakura had quarrelled, while she had been on the receiving end of her allegations, without even knowing why. She had assured the Haruno back then that she had worried for nothing, which had been true, as there had really been nothing between them then… now it was different though. And even though the entire situation had changed meanwhile and wasn't comparable to the one before, it nevertheless felt as if she's had something with her best friend's boyfriend…

The two of them weren't a couple though and had never been one, but still she knew about Sakura's feelings for him, no matter how much she might deny them herself and therefore it felt kind of wrong. This left her with two options now… she could either tell her or not. If she did, it would definitely soothe her guilty conscience, but on the other hand it would hurt Sakura and she would probably get into new trouble with her and it might end with their friendship being on the rocks… If she kept things for herself she'd probably get eaten up by feelings of guilt, but as Sasuke would leave anyway, she would spare Sakura the pain and keep their friendship intact, even though it would be build up on lies then…

"Did you talk to him?" Sakura ripped her out of her train of thoughts, but still kept her dejected emerald eyes fixed on the swaying trees on the other side of the window.

"Yes…" She nodded hesitantly and led a hand through her hair, while she already prepared herself for Sakura's next question, which turned out to be just as she had imagined.

"Did he… did he say anything about his plans…?" The pinkette bit on her bottom lip and turned back to the girl in front of her, even though she still couldn't bear looking at her directly and focussed her eyes on her crossed legs instead.

"You heard everything during my interrogation… I don't really know what he wants to do next…" That was just a half-truth, but she shouldn't contradict herself, barely two hours after her questioning, not even in front of her team-mate.

"Soo… you think he might stay here… I mean Itachi is dead now, so he has no reason to leave again…right?" The pinkette's eyes finally turned upwards and there was a pleading look in them, it was obvious what she wanted to hear…

This time Sayuri averted her eyes and looked to the side, as she could neither take lying right into Sakura's face, nor watching how her face would crumble when she told her the truth… Again there were just these two options and none of them seemed satisfactory…

"Maybe he would… but do you really think they'd let him?" It felt like this was at least the one thousandth time she had asked that question, but it wasn't. She had asked herself this thing over and over again, but this was the first time she actually verbalised it. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing to approach this topic in this manner… It didn't even work for her – miss self-deception – to tell herself that he only left because he wouldn't be allowed to stay, so it was rather unlikely to work for Sakura… but lacking the background information, she herself had (even though she had reached a point where she wished that wasn't the case) it might nevertheless be comforting for the Haruno… or maybe it wouldn't… Instead of building up anger towards Sasuke she would maybe direct it at the village instead… It was simply exasperating - as she had noticed before, the situation was so complicated and hopeless that there was no solution that could possibly satisfy every single person, who was concerned with it…

"I don't know…" The pinkette eventually murmured in a saddened voice and finally locked eyes with the girl in front of her. A strange feeling started building up in Sayuri, it was as if the oxygen was leaking out of the room and it became harder and harder to breathe. Her green eyes looked so weird… hurt and afraid and before Sayuri could even do anything about it, she heard herself speak up in a quiet, breathy voice, even though it didn't feel as if it was really her who was talking…

"I think I might have fallen in love with him…"

These words, spoken by this alien voice dinned through the silence and had even more silence following them. Sayuri could clearly see how Sakura's features froze, the second her voice had died out, but she didn't say anything, which was probably a good thing, as Sayuri's heart throbbed so noisily in her ears that she probably wouldn't have understood her opposite if she had said anything.

After at least a minute of absolutely tense and awkward silence, a bit of motion returned to Sakura's face as she licked over her dry lips and forced a smile to raise up the corners of her mouth, even though it was so obviously plastic that a robot would have probably managed to do better…

"Is that so…?" Her voice sounded rather hollow and her bleak emerald eyes were fixed on Sayuri's face and yet she didn't seem to look at her. "Well… you should know better than that…" She got up from the bed and walked a couple of steps into the direction of the door, all the time followed by Sayuri's sad eyes, before she came to a stop again and added in a weirdly high pitched tone: "It's not like I care about him any more…but anyway – this might sound a bit rude, but you don't stand a chance… no one does…" After casting a last piercing and somehow disappointed look at her team mate, Sakura turned around again and finally walked out of the hospital room, leaving it to the violet-haired girl to make sense of her words…

…

…


	48. Decision?

**48. Decision?**

"Can't you tell me anything? I'm your student after all and you know that I can keep my mouth shut."

This never-changing conversation had marked the better part of this morning and had at some point turned into a monologue, as the addressee no longer bothered to repeat her denial to this request. Nevertheless the pink-haired kunoichi remained persistent and carried on probing, hoping to bring her boss to a point where she'd be so annoyed that she would inadvertently scream at her and prattle away by doing so. However her strategy didn't seem to work out, since the blonde woman sitting on the other side of the dark wooden dining table in the small restaurant, seemed to be as cool as a cucumber, something that didn't seem to go together with her usual character, which didn't really feature self-restraint and calmness…

On a whole, the head of Konoha seemed to be not only calm, but rather stern and somewhat distant; something that had Sakura worried a lot, especially considering what date it was… But she didn't want to give in to any feelings of fear or worry yet, so as she still didn't get an answer after attempt 25 or something, she gave up and focussed her attention on the room she was in.

The sweet, but also distinctive smell of herbs and vegetables permeated the air, especially the heady scent of jasmine tea, coming from the two steaming mugs standing right in front of the two women prevailed in the slightly secluded niche, they had both chosen, to keep their privacy. An unnecessary action, as the whole restaurant was entirely empty except for them and the staff, not really surprising though; business in the gastronomic sector wasn't exactly known to boom at this early time of day…

It didn't matter though, as all the small niches looked exactly alike; they all featured a rectangular oak table and two matching, unfortunately cushionless and therefore rather hard oak banks at the two longer sides of the table and behind the banks were two room dividers, probably made from ebony – at least they looked that dark – which had a fence like grid at the top of each.

Despite the modest number of visitors, the people in the kitchen seemed to work flat out, making hurried and hectic noises, as if they were preparing for a great rush, which was actually not to be expected before afternoon at the earliest…

Sighing, the pink haired woman turned her head back to the front and stared at her half-empty plate, before she looked up and noticed that the blonde woman in front of her was doing the exact same thing.

"Tsunade-sama?" She addressed her in a soft voice, but it seemed as if the Godaime had turned mute to everything coming out of the Haruno's mouth. A frown appeared on Sakura's forehead and she poked a finger at the hand, Tsunade had wrapped around her brownish mug of tea, already the third one she had ordered – something you otherwise only knew her to do with Sake…

"Huh?" The blonde's head shot up, as if she had just been ripped out of a deep sleep and her confused honey-brown eyes locked after some time of uncoordinated roaming around with those of the person in front of her.

"It's something bad, isn't it?" Sakura stared down at the table and missed the light frown that appeared on Tsunade's forehead.

"Sakura, I can't tell you anything because the final decision hasn't been made yet." Tsunade murmured before she raised the mug of tea to her lips and took a hesitant sip, as the contents of her only just ordered drink were still tongue-burning hot.

"That's not it…" The pinkette sighed and finally looked up: "It has to be something bad…" Her voice slowly faded out, but then a dry smile flitted over her face and she added in a feigned cheerful tone: "Why else would you treat me to breakfast?"

"Hmpf." Tsunade snorted and a smirk slowly built up on her lips as well: "Who said I treated you?"

Now both women started laughing, rather half-heartedly though - it didn't seem as if their meek attempts of relaxing the atmosphere would be marked by success…

Half an hour later Tsunade left, as she still had some important preparations to supervise, not to forget the final meeting with the elders before the public decision making.

After finishing the rest of her breakfast alone, Sakura set off as well, but instead of going home, or doing anything purposeful, she merely strolled aimlessly through the streets of Konoha, watching how now even the last shops finally opened. It was rather cold today; not cold enough for your tongue to freeze to a street lamp in case you should be stupid enough to lick at it, but so cold that your feet would probably perform a painful farewell ceremony, in case you should decide to take a longer walk in your toeless boots… It was questionable however if simply the low temperature was the reason why the streets were so uncommonly deserted, even though it was in the middle of the week and as far as she knew there wasn't any holiday or something either… She suspected something else to be the trigger for this general lethargy: anxiety. Over the past couple of days she had seen how the anxiety-virus had gradually spread ever farther and infected more and more people each and every single day and not surprisingly it had reached its peak today.

_Today_: the day when they would once again decide about Sasuke's fate – that's what she saw in this day… others might see things from a different point of view; for them today was the day when four highly dangerous nuke-nins would be let out of their prison cells to be publicly presented and maybe even set free among them – this way of thinking was the main symptom the anxiety-virus went along with…

Her walk took her nearly two hours, but even then hardly anything about the vacancy of the streets had changed… As if people thought that as long as they stayed hidden nothing could happen to them – if they couldn't see anything, then that meant they couldn't be seen either, didn't it? – Every child knew that, why else would they hide their face in their hands while playing hide and seek, so there had to be some truth to it…

Unconsciously, her steps slowed down, as she walked along one of the main streets of Konoha until she came to a stop in front of the favourite '_restaurant'_ of her team-mate: Ichiraku's.

The clattering of plates reached her ears and she perceived some voices that were drowned out though by the sharp wind, which also made the numerous slices of the papery screen, with the shop's name on the single parts dance to and fro and disabled one from seeing anything but the feet and legs of the people inside the small restaurant. After some indecisive standing in front of the small stand, Sakura finally moved forwards, as she heard ever more noise of rattling plates that clearly implied that someone was having a literal eating orgy on the other side of the screen and there was just one person she could imagine to do so at this early time of day…

"… Choji…?" She gasped in surprise after having pushed the paper slides aside, to peer into the snack bar. Choji… not whom she had expected to meet, but nevertheless someone you would think capable of eating his own weight in noodles, before twelve o'clock…… okay maybe not exactly his own weight, but quite a lot at least…

"Hey Sakura…" He murmured between a couple of bites, still with a full mouth and without bothering to detach his eyes from the at least twelfth bowl in front of him. "What is it?" The Akimichi added, even though Sakura wasn't so sure if that's what he'd really said, but it was about the likeliest thing she could think of…

"Ahh… you know what – never mind… Bye Choji." She waved at him and turned around, even before the present member of Team10 was able to empty his mouth far enough to utter a comprehensible goodbye.

Once again Sakura found herself wandering through the lifeless streets, however not purposeless this time, her encounter with Choji had given her an idea, which is why she was now heading due north and had barely half an hour later reached their old training grounds, where she found the very person she had expected to meet there. Naruto was standing in front of a tree, all the time aiming his kunai, he was manipulating with his wind-natured chakra into the small circular spot he had apparently drawn onto the trunk earlier on and which was surrounded by quite a lot of holes in the wood…

"How come you're up that early?" The pinkette enquired as she had nearly reached the Uzumaki. Apparently he hadn't noticed her presence… Startled by the noise, he spun around on his heels in the course of throwing his dagger at the tree and therefore nearly hit his team-mate if she hadn't cocked her head to the side in the nick of time.

"Ohh… Sakura-chan…" Naruto's eyes were wide with shock as he realized what he had (almost) done and fear slowly took over his features.

"Naruto!!!" The Haruno groused furiously, her face contorted into a terrifying grimace and before the Uzumaki was even able to utter a word of apology, Sakura's fist collided with his jaw and sent him flying against the tree, right where his kunai should have actually hit.

"Ow…" The blonde genin wailed, as he eventually struggled to his feet and looked with watery eyes at the girl in front of him, still a little uneasy, because the pink-haired kunoichi didn't look as if she had forgiven him his actually unintended attempt of murder…

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan, you surprised me…" The blonde defended himself in a low voice, but the pinkette didn't seem too impressed by his apology.

"Baka – what kind of ninja are you?!" She grumbled, still with her clenched fist raised in front of her body, something that would have actually intimidated the Uzumaki, but there was no way he would put up with that obvious doubts in his skills.

"What do you mean? – The greatest of course!" He boasted, his chest puffed up with pride.

"Yeah… right…" Sakura rolled her eyes, but had apparently calmed down again and now remembered why she had come here in the first place. "So today's the day…"

"Uh-huh…" Naruto's lips curled up slightly and a stern expression took over his features. "Have you heard anything yet?" He enquired in a muted voice, as if he was afraid of being overheard, even though there was clearly no one around.

"No nothing… Tsunade is resolutely holding her tongue and Shizune didn't seem to know anything either…" Sakura sighed downheartedly and pushed some strands of her bubble-gum-pink hair out of her face, as the rather obnoxious wind was ruffling it into all directions.

"What about Sayuri? Did she hear anything?" The blonde asked and leaned himself against a stone, right beside him, intently peering into his team-mates face.

"…" The pinkette didn't answer but directed her gaze to the grass-covered ground that was coated by a fine layer of morning frost, which was slowly beginning to melt seeing that the sun gained more and more strength, as the hours proceeded towards noon.

Sayuri. Since their conversation in the hospital, almost eight days ago now, she hadn't exchanged a single syllable with her. Not even intentionally, it was just now that she noticed how she hadn't seen her in over a week. She hadn't deliberately avoided her, why should she? She had told her that she was in love with Sasuke – so what? It's not like she was the only one and she didn't care about him anyway. So there was certainly no reason why she should have given her a wide berth, not even subconsciously… Maybe it was the other way around and Sayuri had decided to evade her… Just because she thought it would bother her that she had a crush on the person she's once had feelings for, too.

She wasn't mad at her, but rather felt sorry for her… She had overcome her crush, because she had realized that he would never let anyone get close to him and Sayuri would realize that soon enough, too.

But maybe he was different now… Not that it would change anything for her… Certainly not, but still… Maybe now that his brother was dead… maybe that had changed him… He's reached his goal, hasn't he? – so there was no need for him to seek for more power any longer; no need for him to leave again and maybe even no need for him to push everyone away, out of fear that feelings would make him weak… but even if, that wouldn't help her get past all the hurt she had suffered thanks to him… What was she thinking? – Only because he killed his brother wouldn't make him forget about his entire past. He wouldn't just hang his cold demeanour into the wardrobe and change into a more colourful, positive suit. Something with bright orange stripes and without any crests, or maybe something white that waited for imbuing. Utterly unrealistic.

But maybe if he's had more time… more time to recover from all the loss and hurt he suffered… maybe then he would be able to open up to someone… and maybe that someone would be her…

Damn… how he always managed to raise her hopes again. Actually it wasn't even him – she hadn't seen him in months – it was her own mind that searched for even the tiniest crumb to feed her starving heart… Even made her go all maudlin and soppy - it was simply exasperating… Maybe she had avoided Sayuri after all, the more she thought about all these things the more it did bother her… She didn't want a relationship with the Uchiha, she was almost sure about that and yet she didn't want him to be with someone else either… Egoistic, wasn't it? – Maybe, but she just couldn't help feeling that way…

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto looked at her through his big blue eyes, still waiting for an answer. "So? You think she knows anything?" He carried on probing, a slightly impatient expression on his face.

"Hmm… I don't know. I haven't seen her lately…" Sakura muttered in a low voice and stared with blank eyes at the boy in front of her. "Anyway, I guess I gotta go… you'll be at the meeting later?"

"Of course I will!" The blonde replied vehemently - as if he would miss that!

"Well then, see you later." The pinkette waved goodbye and walked off again, leaving the blonde without any idea of what to do now. He didn't feel like training any more, his concentration was on bottom level anyway, so it was pointless. He had been on edge the entire day – and most of the night too, which explained the dark rings under his eyes…

Indecisively, he whirled his kunai around his forefinger, narrowing his eyes whenever the sun threw bright rays of its light onto the sleek blade of his dagger, before he hurled it into one of the trees and walked away as well.

He still didn't know what to do, only that he needed to do something. He was far too nervous to simply rest and there were still four more hours to be killed… He didn't even know what he was nervous about… to him everything was perfectly clear: Sasuke hadn't betrayed them, but had actually done them a favour by killing both Orochimaru and Itachi and then he had also helped them with Deidara…

There was nothing that militated against his being allowed to return again – so what exactly was it he was anxious about? Maybe because of the elders… after seeing how they had eaten Sayuri alive and had even tried to cast the blame on her, he was sure that they would do anything to get rid of them again… or even finish them off for good… Danzô would definitely be capable of doing so; he didn't have any regrets, not even when it came to executing an innocent person… Okay… they weren't exactly innocent, they were all nuke-nins, but they weren't guilty of what they were accused to have done… ergo they should have nothing to fear… in an uncorrupted world at least… if that applied to Konoha was questionable… Not even a year ago, he would have told everyone who might have asked him that the Village Hidden in the Leaves was one of the most neutral and unbiased places there were… however lately his idea of his hometown had been shaken, as he had realized that the leader of the village, the Hokage, didn't have as much power as he had always thought and that the council members played a far bigger role in the village's politics, as it had the seeming…

Engrossed in these thoughts, Naruto wandered in the same random manner through the village as his team-mate had done before, fully aware that this was a rather bad way of killing time, in fact it even seemed to stretch the hours longer than they already were…

First thing to do was definitely to get some food – no wonder that he felt so down when his stomach was permanently growling and screaming to be fed – hence there was just one thing to do now…

Roughly ten minutes later he already sat in his favourite restaurant, chatting to a rather exhausted looking Teuchi, while Ayame had gone somewhere to refresh their stores, which is why the blonde had to wait quite some time for his third portion of ramen – something that would have upset him on other days maybe, but today he rather welcomed it, as he still had plenty of time as it was…

He managed to spend almost two hours with eating and couldn't think of a reason to protract his stay at Ichiraku's any longer – well he actually could think of something but his rather emaciated toad-wallet just wouldn't go along with it…

But the company had definitely done him good, just two more hours left, so he wanted to stick to that and therefore pondered about whom he could meet up with now. Didn't really take him long to think of someone, so a short time later he already stood in front of a small hut at the edge of Konoha. He walked up the few wooden steps and knocked loudly at the door, but didn't get any response. He tried it a couple of times, but still nothing, so after nearly waiting for five entire minutes he turned around again and walked off with a sulky face.

Great. Now he had to come up with something else to do and this day wasn't exactly marked by flashes of creativity…

A frustrated sigh parted his lips and he just kept standing on the spot, looking around as if he waited for a sudden idea to jump right into his face – kind of worked out, only that it wasn't an idea that jumped at him and not into his face either but at his back…

"Hey!" He called out in surprise as he noticed the big black dog that had nearly thrown him over and was now happily running around the Uzumaki's legs, all the time wagging his tail and letting out some joyful barks.

"Naruto-kun?" Now the owner of the hyperactive dog showed up as well and looked with a rather startled expression at the blonde, who still looked a little unbalanced and caught off guard.

"Sayuri-chan finally – where have you been? I've been waiting here for ages!" The blonde groused, but nevertheless wore a smile on his face.

"Well, sorry – didn't know you were coming…" Sayuri explained and walked towards her house, where she unlocked the door and held it open for Naruto. That one walked past her at once and let himself fall onto the cozy, but for his taste too small couch, right next to the door, emitting a theatrical sigh, before he sat up straight and followed his team-mate with his eyes, as she stepped into the room as well.

"To what do I owe the honour of your visit?" She asked with an amused tinge in her voice, even though she was sure she knew the answer already…

"Just happened to pass by, so I thought I might as well…" He started, but as he saw the sceptical look on Sayuri's face, he simply shrugged and let his head drop a little. "Okay, okay… actually I came because I don't know what to do with myself until later…"

"Hmm…" Sayuri nodded pensively, with a more serious expression now, before she took off her jacket and asked: "You want some tea?"

"Eh…? Well… Okay, why not." The Uzumaki accepted; a little confused though, since for him this didn't seem to be the right time for a tea… Once he held the steaming cup of freshly brewed tea in his hands though, he reconsidered his former view again and was now of the opinion that this was exactly what he needed, regarding that he was more or less a nervous wreck…

Sayuri had sat down on the edge of the bed, standing only about a metre away from the couch and sipped at her tea as well, looking about as needy for something to calm her nerves as did Naruto himself. Apparently she wasn't doing any better than him, but in case they got bored, they could make a competition out of who had the bigger and more vicious rings under their eyes…

"So, how are you doing…?" The Uzumaki began, not really knowing what to say, or better how to say what he wanted…

"Oh… fine, thank you, really…" Sayuri replied with a strained smile on her face, before she recalled something called courtesy and added: "And you?"

"Oh, well yeah, absolutely…" He nodded, sounding equally tense and focussed his gaze on the still steaming cup in his hands, which emitted a pleasant, aromatic scent and warmed his chilled bones. "I met Sakura a couple of hours ago." Naruto stated, only for the sake of saying something. "She'll be at the conference, too."

Now Sayuri detached her eyes from the piece of wood boarded floor between her feet and raised her head to look at the blonde in front of her. "You'll go there?" She asked, apparently startled and couldn't help but to frown, which was copied by the Uzumaki, too, because he didn't know what to make of her words.

"Well of course! You don't?" He asked her in a sceptical tone and perceived how she shifted her eyes to the floor again.

"Do you really think we will be allowed to go there? This is actually only meant for the high-ranked personalities of Konoha – just because we were somehow involved in all this, doesn't mean they'll let us attend…" Sayuri explained her misgivings, still vividly remembering how it had been at the last public decision making…

P_ublic decision making_ - A misleading term… once the public decision making took place, the real decision had already been made, but this way people again got the chance to feel far more important and influential than they actually were. Making everyone feel content seemed to be what it was all about… well no – only the important people, the rest could go jump in a lake, for all they cared… That was probably a little unfair, not everyone was like that – Tsunade sure wasn't – but the majority seemed to be this way, hence it didn't make much of a difference.

"Well, sure they will – I want to see them keep me from going there!" Naruto exclaimed with utter conviction, barely able to keep his cool and remain seated on the couch.

"Well, I guess then I'll just stick with you…" Sayuri muttered with a light smile on her lips and earned a consenting nod from the blonde.

They kept sitting in the small hut for the rest of the time, talking about more or less everything, but not what really occupied them – the outcome of the decision later was an unspoken taboo.

When there was barely half an hour left, they took off and walked towards the Hokage tower, where they could already see a pink shock of hair, the owner of which was wandering to and fro in front of the entrance in a nervous manner.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" The blonde called their team-mate's attention to their arrival and caused her to finally stand still and wait until they had closed up to her. After some rather faltering and reticent greetings, that didn't even suggest that the two girls actually knew each other, Sakura began stating the situation and confirmed Sayuri's assumption: entrance only for those on the guest list – as if this was some kind of big event or nightclub… simply ridiculous.

"What do we do now?" Sakura asked after a while, as they watched more and more people walk past them, some of which even cast rather disapproving looks at them.

"Well, we go in of course!" Naruto stated, as if there was nothing more natural in the world.

"But how…?" Sayuri enquired with a frown on her face as her eyes roamed over the unreasonably high posse of security forces, who were mindful to not even let a tiny ant crawl past them – if it wasn't on the guest list at least…

"Leave it to me!" Naruto exclaimed, confidently pointing his thumb to his chest, before he turned around on his heels with a cunning grin on his face and darted towards the main entrance.

A couple of seconds later he came flying right back. Apparently he hadn't been able to convince the guards of his plan and they had expressed their aversion by kicking him back to where he came from… so much to plan A…

"Well that didn't really work…" Sakura stated matter of factly as she observed how the Uzumaki patted the dust off his clothes. "Any more ideas? – I mean like _real_ ideas, with prospect of success if possible…" The pinkette shot a sceptical gaze at the now dirt-0free Uzumaki, who looked with a rather pensive expression up and down the Hokage tower.

"Not so impatient… that was all part of my plan… that was… a simple… diversion tactic, yes." The blonde explained with obvious difficulty though, which suggested that he had only just come up with this story himself…

"Diversion tactic…?" Sayuri pressed on sceptically. "Normally you divert someone when you don't want him to notice what you are doing, soo… what have you been doing?"

"Well…

… …

… …forget it." Naruto dropped his head in discouragement and heaved a weary sigh.

"Maybe we can talk to them and convince them that we are supposed to be in there, too – I mean we have been at the interrogations as well, you two even actively – maybe they've seen you and recognize you… so… well, it's worth a try, isn't it?" Sakura proposed, even though she didn't look too convinced of her own idea, but they had nothing to lose, so it didn't really matter…

Moving as if they were a single person, they approached the guard post standing closest to the door and at once began to talk him down simultaneously, which made it very unlikely that he understood even a single one of their well thought through and profound arguments of why they should be allowed to go in. Even if he did, he kept it to himself – all their reasoning and pleas fell on deaf ears, they could have also talked to the wall and it wouldn't have made much of a difference… and as no one else was passing by any longer, he didn't even bother to '_send'_ them away, as his colleague had done with Naruto before…

"Woah… what is going on here?" They heard a familiar voice coming from behind them and interrupted their rants for a moment, to find out who had come along.

"Shizune-san!" Sakura greeted Tsunade's assistant, as did the other two, as well and turned around to her, which is why they missed the relieved sigh the guard they had savaged heaved, once they had turned their backs on him.

"What are you making a fuss about? I already heard you from over there." The black-haired woman pointed down the streets before she turned back to the three shinobi in front of her and shot a questioning look at them.

"They won't let us in!" Naruto exclaimed incredulously, still not understanding how anyone could think that they weren't involved or important enough to attend this meeting.

"Well then, I guess that means you're not invited." She stated the obvious and considered the trio in front of her with a musing gaze in her charcoal eyes. "Anyway… follow me…" She instructed them and walked past them, past the guard and through the door.

Once she was out of sight, the three members of Team7 exchanged some uncertain looks, before they nodded at each other and walked after Tsunade's assistant, however they didn't really get far as the deaf guard had apparently also missed out that they now had the allowance to enter and wouldn't clear the way.

"It's okay…" Shizune cocked her head back through the door again and therewith interrupted Naruto's renewed tirade and drew the guard's attention to herself. "Tsunade-sama instructed me to pick them up – now let them through." She ordered and vanished on the other side of the door again.

"Hn." They snorted and walked with smug expressions and their noses high in the air, past the guard and found themselves in a long corridor, filled with the sound of some distant, muted voices, coming from the other end of it.

Smitten by a weird feeling, like a sudden blast of nervousness that sent a numb prickle through their entire skin and seemed to gather in their fingertips, which is why they kept their fists clenched into tight balls, they walked towards the half opened door and stepped hesitantly into the crowded hall, with Naruto in the lead of their tiny group.

They came to a stop in the back of the room, right where a broad aisle ran through the middle of the seating rows and separated it into two sections, from where they let their eyes roam through the entire room to get a better view of it. It was a large hall, with a light wooden floor and beige stucco walls. It was divided into two parts, the small stage in the front of the room, where you could see a small wooden lectern and a few chairs at the rear wall of it and the lower part where numerous people were sitting on the chairs that had been put up for this day, all engaged in various discussion, even though their entrance seemed to have interrupted some people in their conversation.

A lot of eyes were focussed on the three of them, who were probably the youngest people in this room; most of them held rather puzzled, but at times also contemptuous looks in them. Either way, their appearance had initiated another wave of subdued whispering to sweep over the assembly hall, making everyone except for Naruto feel rather uneasy.

"There are some seats…" Sayuri stated in a low voice and nodded to the left side of the hall, where there was a nearly unoccupied row of chairs in the rear centre of the room. Once they had gotten there though, someone had already taken their seats, so instead of searching for some other sitting accommodation, they leaned themselves against the wall and focussed their eyes on the still empty stage, waiting for anything to happen.

They didn't need to wait long, merely five minutes later, the huge door flew open as an ANBU entered the room, his mere presence causing quiet to return to the room. A few seconds later he was followed first by Tsunade and then the council members and Ibiki.

With watchful eyes they observed how the six people stepped onto the small stage, where Tsunade walked right to the lectern and cast a stern look through the entire room, while the other people, except for the ANBU sat down on the chairs in the back of the platform.

The Hokage opened the sitting with a brief greeting and a general outline of the schedule of this meeting, before she gave a short summary of the past events and the new findings, all of which was followed by pricked-up ears.

Even though a breathless and undisturbed silence had descended upon the room, which was quite remarkable, considering just how many people there were, Sayuri hardly picked up anything of Tsunade's words. None of it was new to her, so instead of again listening to the far too well-known facts, she focussed her attention on the Godaime's mimic and gesture, trying to read in her face what was really going on. She didn't make it easy though, her face looked all stern and business-like and she had only looked into their direction once and only for a fleeting moment, making it impossible to read any hidden message in her eyes or anything, but maybe that was what it came down to… the fact that she so obviously avoided looking at them could be seen as a bad sign… Or maybe it was again her unwavering pessimism which tainted all her thoughts and perceptions. What did she expect? Tsunade was giving a public speech after all… there were more people than just the three of them around, so it wasn't surprising that she didn't channel her attention to them solely, even though something like a simple smile or a wink would have been damn reassuring…

Especially considering the new worry that had smitten her… She had been glad when Sasuke had told her that he would wait till after the decision making, before he would leave, but now that she's had quite some time to think about it, she doubted that this was a good idea… Not after she had seen the so obvious aversion of the elders towards them… In case they should be allowed to stay, all was well, but if they wouldn't, this would get really bad. They were S-class nuke-nin, so it was rather unlikely that they would just imprison them. As if anyone would seriously believe that they could keep them locked up and they wouldn't do anything about it… It wouldn't take too long before they'd make their escape and Danzô was probably more aware of that than anyone else, therefore he would definitely take drastic actions… which means he'd kill them or have them killed or whatever – fact is they wouldn't survive it and she didn't know too much about Danzô, but she was rather positive that he was one of the few who'd be able to do so…

There was suddenly the sound of moving chairs, drawing Sayuri out of her thoughts and as she looked up, she could see how most people had turned their heads towards the door and shot expectant looks at it.

A little confused, she turned her head to the side to look at her two team-mates and as she realized that their full attention was focused on the entrance-region too, she did the same and watched how the door flew open for a second time.

A cluster of ANBU came marching into the room and it took a second look, to spot the people walking in their midst. Entirely shielded by the numerous guards, the four members of Team Hebi walked in single file through the aisle in the middle and stepped towards the small stage. Their gazes were directed to the front and their hands were tied behind their backs by chakra-suppressing handcuffs.

The quality of silence changed, once the highly dangerous nuke-nins had entered the room, the former tension yielded to trepidation, the only sound was that of the hollow footsteps, as the group of people walked up to the small podium and came to a halt in the left corner of it.

They all looked rather worn-out, as if they hadn't slept or eaten in days and yet their faces were blank and unimpressed, unlike those of the people in the crowd, who weren't in the dock here and nevertheless looked as if they were the ones to be judged upon.

Sayuri's eyes remained fixed on the four of them, especially on Sasuke, whose deep black eyes roamed from person to person, until they came upon their little group and rested there for a couple of seconds. She took up the eye-contact at once and briefly lost herself in his eyes, forgetting about everyone and everything else in the room. Even though it were merely a couple of seconds, it seemed like eternity and yet, once Tsunade's voice brought her back to reality, she became all too aware of the ephemerality of this moment of affinity and wished it back. Wished herself away from this place. She didn't want to hear any of this… she was sure of the outcome of this entire thing, so why listen to it? All she wanted was to be gone… it didn't matter where, as long as there weren't these negative, judgmental people around…

She lowered her gaze once their eye-contact was broken and concentrated on Tsunade's words, now that the important part was getting started…

"These are the four people, who are the reason for today's assembly; consider them carefully and listen to their illustrations, before you pass your judgement on them." The blonde woman started, but paused for a moment, as a sudden murmur arose among the audience. With a puzzled frown on her face, Tsunade turned her head around and spotted the trigger for this agitation. Danzô had gotten up from his chair and had taken a couple of steps into her direction in a fairly distinctive manner.

Still frowning, the Hokage stepped back and left the place at the speaker's desk to the head of the ANBU-fraction _Root_, not knowing whether she should sit down now, or remain standing where she was, as Danzô's behaviour didn't fit into the schedule they had set up for today.

"The words chosen to approach this precarious matter have been very indistinctive up to now. So for the sake of ensuring that the choice you will make is appropriate to the given situation I would like to clarify things further at this point and inform you about the weight of your voices." He started in his calm, apathetic voice and left a short break after his words, so his listeners could digest what he had just said before he carried on. "I fear it hasn't been made clear that this meeting has never been supposed to decide, whether these four nuke-nins should be allowed to live in Konoha or not-" He broke off as another agitated murmur went through the crowd, not in the least instigated by Naruto, who seemed ready to explode. Tsunade didn't look too happy about Danzô's words either: she had a killer look in her eyes and was clenching her fists tightly to keep them from shaking. Sakura and Sayuri had shock and confusion clearly written in their faces and didn't participate in any of the numerous debates, even though battalions of words came flying around their ears incessantly, especially Naruto's curses and complaints.

After waiting for silence to return, Danzô carried on with his speech, entirely unimpressed by the churned up faces that were directed into his direction.

"This reaction to my words, confirms my worry that you have not been aware of the true purpose of this assemblage. It has never been an option for these four people to be allowed to live in Konoha and I am sure that most of you will welcome this fact… The reason for our meeting here is solely to determine the kind of 'treatment', which will be applied to deal with these four individuals."

"Danzô!" Tsunade interrupted him brusquely. There was a warning tone in her voice and she looked at least equally upset as Naruto did himself. This wasn't what they had agreed upon – Danzô had just seized the reins and tried to shift things to how he wanted them to be. He had undermined her authority and there was hardly anything she could do about it because the Hokage and the council were supposed to form a unit in public. Therefore she couldn't recant what he had just said, the only thing she could do now was stopping him from making things even worse – if that was even possible…. However her rebuke was drowned out by the sound of voices, only that this time the noise didn't solely come from within the room, but seemed to have its origin on the outside.

Once the other people realized that too, they fell silent again and focused their attention on the windows, but were mostly blinded by the incident light of the setting sun.

"What is going on?" Naruto asked, while he shifted his eyes from the windows to the stage, realizing that everyone looked about just as clueless as he did himself.

Danzô shot a hateful glare towards the four confined people, as if he suspected them to be behind all this and with a flick of his fingers, the ANBU closed in on them and what happened then couldn't be seen, because they blocked the view of the four captives entirely, only Karin's and Suigetsu's cursing could be heard, but not for long as the noise outside grew louder and louder.

The members of Team7 exchanged some anxious glances and Naruto seemed close to jumping onto the stage to show Danzô what he thought of him… however than he really had to hurry, because Tsunade looked very likely to beat him to it. She was again wearing that scary grimace that told you not to mess with her… something had to be terribly wrong…

The Godaime detached her angry eyes from Danzô for a moment and now looked towards the group of ANBU too and than back at the people in front of her, many of whom had gotten up from their chairs and looked noticeably nervous and tense.

"Tora." She nodded towards the ANBU who had first entered the room and after a brief signal of comprehension, he stepped off the stage and towards the door at the end of the hall, followed by the curious and likewise scared eyes of almost every person in the large room.

Once he reached the door, he extended his arm to grope for the handle, however before his hand was able to touch the cold metallic surface of it, the heavy door was thrust open and a very agitated jounin stormed into the room.

"We're under attack!" He yelled, once he spotted the Hokage and now all hell broke loose in the crowded hall.

…

…


	49. Invasion part 1

**49. Invasion Part 1**

"Let me out already! I'm not supposed to be here!"

These words echoed through passage after passage, within the huge stone cavern, situated in the very mountain chain, with the faces of the former, as well as the present Hokage carved into them, but despite their volume they didn't seem to reach anyone, or at least no one felt obliged to react to them.

Many passageways traversed through the entire interior of the mountain, varying from narrow alleys to larger, cave-like hollows, giving this whole construction the semblance of an anthill, with all the tunnels, their complex structure and the various loopholes.

Most of the cavern lay in complete darkness except for those few tunnels, which were illuminated by the flickering orange light of some torches, which had been attached to the stone walls. The entire construction seemed to be left in its natural state, however at second sight, some of the passes and rooms seemed a little too geometric and level to be natural, especially the staircases, which were admittedly rare in number, but still existent, destroyed the image of a place that had never been touched by human hands.

A repetitive, jolt-like pounding vibrated through the cave, followed by an unnatural silence, before the next swell of noise and quivering set in. The umber rock walls and the equally shaded stony ground shook with every blast that ripped through the air and caused some mineral dust and debris to rain down from the ceiling.

"LET ME OUT!!!"

The voice arose again and was followed by the clanging sound of something solid being hit against a metallic surface, which only emphasized the urgency of this message, someone was so desperate to convey.

There were many hidden entrances, which led into this mountain cave and it took a long walk through numerous passages and tunnels of this cavernous labyrinth, to find the very path, which led into one of the bigger hollows, where the source of the permanent din and clamouring was to be found.

"HEY!!! You over there – I'm talking to you! HEY!!!"

A blonde ninja, dressed in a black and orange training-suit, kept on yelling, while he simultaneously rattled the hinge of his handcuffs against the iron bars, which deterred him from being where he was really needed.

"Damn it – what's wrong with you?! LET-ME-OUT!!!" He roared and started yanking at the bars, but in vain, the massive iron poles just wouldn't move, or be stretched far enough for him to squeeze through them and even though he knew that, he kept on trying anyway – anything to give vent to his fury…

The cell he was in was monitored by a pair of ANBU, who just stood at the opposite wall and kept staring at them, through their typical masks, but didn't react in any kind to his… let's say '_request'_…

"I want OUT!" He screamed at the top of his lungs and this time he seemed to get at least some kind of response, even though it was neither of the kind he would have liked to hear, nor from any of the persons he wanted to get it from…

"Gosh – can't you just gag him?" He heard a muted voice coming from somewhere behind one or two corners, or so he guessed, which was why he couldn't see whom exactly it was from, even though he had a fairly good idea…

"Shut up over there! At least I'm doing something!" Naruto grouched and again hammered his handcuffs against the iron bars, to create a shrill, ear-splitting, goose-bump causing sound, but apart from the people, who were locked up here just like him, he didn't seem to bother anyone – at least their guards hadn't even changed their positions in almost half an hour now and seemed to be hardly more than some dressed and masked statues without any kinds of faculties or whatever else constituted a living human being…

"Damn - you could at least help me!" He turned around and walked into the middle of his prison, from where he looked down at his cellmate, who was cowering in a corner of the cave, one of his legs stretched out on the floor, while he had drawn up the other to rest his likewise handcuffed hands on it.

These stupid chakra-suppressing handcuffs!

If it wasn't for them, they would be long out of here. If he could just use his Rasengan on the cave walls they'd be free in an instance, but this way it was impossible.

"It's pointless they won't listen to you." The dark-haired man murmured in a low voice, and kept staring at nothing in particular.

"Pah! Then I'll make them!" Naruto disagreed and turned back to the bars, again taking up his former occupation of rattling, screaming and making any other kind of noise he could think of.

"Just shut up already!" The other voice tried to silence him again, as no one else seemed to feel obliged to do so.

"Nobody asked you! If you want to stay here then do so, but leave me alone!" The Uzumaki barked back and received only some scoffing laughter for a reply.

"Damn you…" He groused and after making some extra loud and annoying noise with his handcuffs, he turned back into his cell and seated himself crossed legged into the middle of the cold stone floor, barely a metre away from his cellmate, when another tremor, up to now unequalled in its intensity and duration shook the entire mountain anew.

"Just what is going on there?" The blonde asked, with a clearly nervous tinge in his voice and looked at the dark-haired man next to him, who had finally detached his eyes from the piece of ground they had been focussed on and stared at the guards on the other side of the bars, with apparent contempt in his gleaming black eyes.

"Tze – what do you think?" The Uchiha hissed in a low voice and finally looked at his former team-mate, who had now commenced to hammer his handcuffs against a protruding piece of rock, in the attempt to break the metallic hinge, which connected the individual parts.

"That won't work…" Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes, as the blonde nevertheless carried on with it. "Suigetsu tried that the last three days… they won't break." He explained, but instead of abandoning his attempts, the expression on Naruto's face became only more obstinate and furious. He kept pressing his teeth tightly together and his face was already red from exertion, until he finally lost his temper and slammed both his tied-together hands against the water mug, which had been standing next to him and hauled it against the wall, while a brutish growl escaped his throat.

With an unimpressed expression on his face, the Uchiha-heir observed how his still heavily breathing cell-mate regained his self-control and slowly calmed down again. At least it had looked as if he would do so, but that didn't seem to be the case, as the blonde was again at the bars only a second later and cursed and rattled for dear life.

"Shh… Cut it out dobe!" Sasuke hissed in an annoyed tone, which only fitted too well to the grimace on his face, which he forced back as fast as it had appeared, before he lifted up his arms and briefly messaged the sleeves of his now again blank face.

Still looking fairly upset, but also worried, the Uzumaki held on to one of the bars, before he let his head drop forwards and exhaled heavily. After taking some deep breaths, he turned around and dragged himself towards the wall, Sasuke was leaning against and seated himself next to him. His deep blue eyes remained focussed on the orange glowing iron bars, which seemed to be blazing hot, as they reflected the flickering light of the torches on either side of the two guards. Hardly anything of that already dim light reached their cell, though and the corner they were now both sitting in was bathed in complete darkness, which should make them almost invisible, even for the trained eyes of an ANBU.

"So, have you had a nice stay here?" Naruto tried to quench his anger by cracking a few jokes, however the fierce look on his face and the strained cadence in his muted voice, thwarted his attempt to have a bit of small talk.

"Hn." The Uchiha snorted; this single, characteristic sound of his literally dripping with sarcasm.

Another tremor ran through the ground and caused Naruto to press his eyes tightly shut, while he tried to block everything out, for otherwise he was sure he would go ballistic once again…

"Hey… at least we have some time to chat now…" The blonde grinned wryly, trying hard to find even the tiniest positive aspects there were, to make the best out of this shitty situation; however his cellmate didn't seem too enthusiastic about his idea…

"Why did you come to help us?" Naruto enquired in a hesitant and above all shushed voice, because he didn't want their watch to overhear them.

The Uchiha had a pensive expression on his face and kept staring into space, but didn't show the slightest inclination to answer the question, but if he thought he'd get away with that, he didn't know Naruto.

"Hey." He poked Sasuke in the ribs and received a deadly glare in return, before the dark-haired man sighed and finally condescended to give him his answer.

"I still had a score to settle with Deidara…" He muttered taciturnly, before he narrowed his eyes to slits and glowered at Naruto from the corner of his eyes, as he perceived how a smug grin raised the corners of the blonde's lips.

"You're not fooling me, teme…" His grin grew softer and a faraway expression took over his features: "You always act tough, but actually you're a softy." Now a sly sneer had again manifested on Naruto's face and he couldn't help but to chuckle about his own words, while the person next to him just snorted contemptuously and didn't seem in the least inclined to join in on the snickering, which wasn't really surprising though…

"Don't be such a grump." Naruto couldn't stop his soundless chortling, even though the heat of the moment had long faded and what he had said wasn't really _thaaaat_ funny, alright, yet laughing felt better than just doing nothing…

Sasuke looked at his former team-mate as if he doubted his sanity, the huge frown on his face, only emphasizing that and it took quite some time for the Uzumaki to calm down again and carry on with analysing his cellmate's behaviour, with a kind of scary, conspiratorial look on his face.

"If you didn't care for us, why would you have saved us then, huh?" He enquired with a confident and haughty expression, but nevertheless remained careful to keep his voice down. As he didn't get his answer at once, the grin on his face spread even wider and he pressed on. "So?"

"You got into my jutsu – it was mere coincidence…" The Uchiha-heir stated in a low voice, his eyes again focussed on nothing in particular, apparently lost in thoughts.

"Pah!" Naruto snorted mockingly and drew Sasuke's attention to himself again. "You mean you just coincidentally ran your chidori through all our bodies to kill off the bombs, huh?!" The Uzumaki concluded in a confident voice, already sure that Sasuke wouldn't be able to controvert that. In fact, he didn't even try, but cast a puzzled look at the blonde.

"Tsunade told me…" He explained, remembering what the Hokage had guessed after hearing the report of the ninja who had found them. It had been another tracking squad, which had been drawn towards them after hearing the noise of their fight. Even from a distance they had seen the huge Deidara-clone, before it had exploded then and they had only just been out of reach of the micro-explosives, but had seen how some birds had dissolved into thin air, just like that. They had hesitated some time before going there, but eventually they had encountered the nine of them, every single one of them unconscious and badly wounded but alive, whereas there was no trace of their opponent. Their statements hadn't really helped her, with seeing through what had happened, though - however after listening to their interrogations, things had become considerably clearer for the Hokage. "It's just a guess, but it was the only thing that corresponded to all our testimonies and explained the wounds every single one of us had."

"…"

"And it would fit. It's just the thing you would do, even though you'd never tell anyone…" A bland smile crossed his face and he wasn't even bothered by the sceptical and not to forget annoyed look Sasuke shot him.

"You know-"

"No whispering over there!" One of the ANBU interrupted the blonde and his ephemeral good mood vanished in an instant.

"WHAT?!" He jumped up from the ground and ran towards the bars at once. "I've been screaming my lungs out here and nothing and you bother about whispering?!" He yelled indignantly, nearly hitting the guards with some drops of spit that flew out of his mouth, but apparently the guards had turned back to stone again and didn't speak to him any longer.

"Damn you…" He grumbled some unintelligible curses under his breath and shot some killer looks towards the two ANBU, before he turned around again and slouched back to sit down again. The ground started shaking once more and clouds of dust and debris came down from the ceiling, obscuring everyone's view for a moment with its sandstorm like quality and entailing some wild coughing, as everyone tried to get rid of the dust particles they had involuntarily inhaled.

Once the dust had settled, Naruto started shaking himself like a wet dog, to get rid of the dirt and then leaned his head back against the hard, stony wall and closed his eyes with a strained look on his face. He could barely take just sitting here, when there was a sheer pandemonium outside… He still couldn't believe they had really locked him up! What the hell was wrong with them?! Everything had happened so fast, he hardly knew what was going on, at all…

He led his hands to his face and pressed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, while he squeezed his eyes firmly shut, trying to concentrate on what had happened only an hour earlier and bring some order into the events… …

…

… … It was right after Danzô had declared that Sasuke would never be permitted to return to Konoha again. That was when the noise had started.

Something had happened out there, but it was impossible to tell what, from within the assembly hall. Not with all these people making too much noise themselves. Scared like chicken. They had soon fallen quiet though, but it had still been hard to tell and then his attention had been drawn off to Sasuke and the others, who had suddenly vanished behind a cluster of ANBU. All belonging to _Root_… Danzô's men…

He's had a hard time to stay back, not after what he had just heard and what he had then seen, but he had somehow managed… especially after he had been distracted by something else…

"_We're under attack!"_

These words had boomed through the entire hall and after some initial silence, in which everyone had to digest the contents of this message first, all hell had broken loose within the large hall. It had been hard to make anything out then. Everyone had been panicking and running around in a wild frenzy. They hadn't seemed to know where to run to, but had kept on running for the sake of not standing… They had probably neither wanted to stay in the hall, which didn't really seem to be a safe place and yet they hadn't wanted to be out there either, where it was probably even less safe…

It had taken him quite some time to realize what was going on, too, but once he had, he had at once turned to his team-mates and asked them what to do next.

Sakura had proposed to go to Tsunade first and wait for orders, so that's what they had done then. As it seemed they hadn't been the only ones with this idea: about all ninjas that had attended the meeting, which hadn't been too many admittedly, were moving in a straight line towards the Hokage and posed a great contrast to the other people who ran around in misshapen circles and zigzags.

He had noticed at once how upset the blonde woman had looked. She had still been engaged in a wild discussion, with the ninja who had delivered the bad news. Apparently he had brought her up-to-date and she hadn't liked what she had heard at all. She had looked as though she'd seen a ghost and once the dozen of ninjas had gathered around her, she had retold all the information she had attained in a shaky voice.

Konoha had been invaded by armed forces, even though no one knew yet how many it were and how they had gotten past their borders without setting off the alarm of the barrier surrounding Konoha… They didn't wear any headbands, at least none of those which had been seen and once they had reached the village wall they had summoned a huge crane which had carried most of the enemies into the midst of Konoha.

They weren't prepared for this attack. Tsunade had extra stressed that point. They had only just drawn back their sentries. After the last month of tenseness and uncertainty, everyone had expected to finally get their well-deserved holiday to recover from the exertion of the last time… And now they were again forced to defend their village and this time for real… Some exhausted, scared and unmotivated ninja against prepared, apparently skilled and not to forget unknown forces…

She had sent them out at once, to collect as much information about what was happening and to organize in teams, before she had led the way outside. That's when it had happened.

All of a sudden, there had been two ANBU at either side of him and they had gripped for his arms, disabling him from moving. Completely confused, he had tried to free himself of course and had repeatedly enquired what was going on, but instead of answering they, had dragged him backwards, away from the door.

Sakura had seen him and had gone to Tsunade right away. The blonde woman had spun around on her heels at once, looking probably equally confused as he had himself. But then a swell of fury had taken over her features and she had rushed towards him, after again ordering the others to get out. It had taken her quite some time to cover the way to him, as she's had to fight herself through the mayhem of panicking people, who seemed to block her way on purpose… He had still been kicking around wildly and had tried to free himself, when only a few people had separated the Hokage from him. Then she had finally reached him and had started screaming at the two masked men, who had been trying to drag him away, when suddenly Danzô had appeared in front of her. He had still seen the look on her face, as she had talked to the elder. That puzzled and furious expression, but then his view had been blocked by some people again, but he had nevertheless been able to hear some scrapes of what Danzô had said.

"… _can't risk… …like before… …dangerous… … Kyuubi away… …"_

Just what was going on here?

Kyuubi. It was again about the monster in him, that much was certain… but still what did it mean? Why had they locked him away? Did they think he would lose control of himself again, just like that last time? This was simply ridiculous… Tsunade had probably thought the same way. He had still been able to hear her screaming over the noise of the crowd and then he was at some door. They had tried to get him through it, but he had done his best to cling to the door frame. Then everything around him had turned black… …

…

… … That was all he remembered. Once he had woken up, he'd already been in this cell with Sasuke, whereas the other people, who had been with him - he didn't want to call them his team - were somewhere else in this huge mountain.

An entire hour had passed since then. One hour in which the Hidden Leave was under attack and there was nothing he could do about it. Even though Konoha was a home too numerous overly skilled ninja, he still felt as if they would need him there… Was it a presentiment, or was it only because he wanted to protect the people, who were dear to him and make sure they were safe? Being locked in here, he didn't have the slightest idea what was going on out there, which was probably what upset him so much – the uncertainty…

His hands started trembling, so he clenched them tightly and again stared at the loathsome handcuffs that kept him from helping his friends.

Another guttural growl escaped his throat and he noticed that Sasuke had turned his head into his direction and scrutinized him through narrowed eyes. He didn't need that look now, so he drew his knees up and rested his head on them, while he buried his fingers in his hair and would have probably started tearing at them, if his handcuffs would have allowed that.

More noise now, so he tried to bury his head between his knees to cover his ears and tried to tell himself that it wasn't the ground that was shaking, but his body, which was only partly wrong…

He kept sitting like this for at least ten minutes, when he noticed that something was different and not only that Sasuke had shifted his position… He raised up his head again and looked to the front.

A stunned expression took over his features and with wide eyes he stared at their two guards, who were now lying on the stony ground, before they shifted to the dark cloaked man, who was standing right next to them and had tilted his hooded head down, to look at the unconscious ANBU, before he leaned down to them.

Tearing his eyes away from that sight, he looked at Sasuke, trying to read in his face what had just happened, but the Uchiha's eyes remained firmly fixed on the unknown man, his face as blank as usually.

A metallic jangle could be heard and caused Naruto to look at the man again, who was now standing right in front of their cell; the key in his hands. Still with his blue eyes as wide as saucers, Naruto tried to sit up and noticed how the stranger raised a finger to his lips, before he opened the door and took a step inwards. He nodded towards Naruto and motioned him to get up, what he at once did, however he didn't approach the man, as he could clearly see the kunai he was holding in his hands…

"Who-" Naruto started but was at once shushed by the hooded man, who cast a short side-glance over his shoulder into the direction, the voice from before had come from, before he turned around again and walked with raised kunai towards the blonde.

"Woah…" Naruto stepped backwards and pressed himself against the wall behind him, from where he looked down at the Uchiha, who still hadn't bothered to get up from the ground and had his coal black eyes firmly fixed on the newcomer.

He could hear something that sounded like a sigh and then he pressed his eyes shut, as the cloaked man lashed out with his knife.

There was again a metallic sound and a second later his arms were free.

"Wha-" He started as he opened his eyes in puzzlement, but was again shushed by the man who had apparently just freed him from his handcuffs.

Gesturing with his head to follow him, his liberator turned around and walked out of the cell, where he positioned himself next to the cell door. Instead of going right after him, Naruto looked down at Sasuke who was still handcuffed and sat on the floor and gripped for his arm to pull him upwards, before he dragged him with him out of the cell. However the cloaked man didn't think much of his idea, because he squeezed the door shut as soon as Naruto had walked through it and therewith nearly crushed his arm, with which he was still pulling the Uchiha after him.

"I won't go without Sasuke…" The blonde muttered in a low voice, hoping that the noise outside would be loud enough to drown out his voice for the most part.

After some seconds of hesitation, the stranger shrugged and heaved a frustrated sigh, before he let go of the door and observed with watchful eyes how the Uchiha walked out of the cell, all the time keeping his wary eyes fixed on him as well, before he turned his head to the side and looked for a brief moment into the direction where he assumed his team to be.

It only took one look and Naruto knew, that he wanted to free them and he didn't know if he should be happy about the fact that Sasuke apparently cared for someone else, or not, because it was someone other than them… either way he seized the reins and grabbed for the kunai with which the stranger had only just cut him free and did the same with Sasuke's handcuffs, before the unknown man was able to take it back from him.

"So much to staying hidden…" The man murmured, apparently aware as well, of what the clan-heir was about to do. "I'll keep an eye on you, Sasuke…" He whispered and kept his face turned into the Uchiha's direction.

"Hn… Kakashi…" The nuke-nin murmured, but missed the astonished grin that spread on the hooded man's face.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto screamed in a whisper, barely able to keep an astounded expression from his face.

The jounin nodded in response and then muttered: "Let's go get them…", before he led the way through the mountain labyrinth to the other cells.

…

…

Chaos everywhere and it just wouldn't get any better.

The attackers poured into the village like ants out of their hive. There was no end to them. And then also all these summons they used… Talking about home advantage… Someone should tell them about that… maybe then they would behave as was appropriate for attackers, who didn't even seem to come from a certain village and should therefore be a little bit more restricted in their military forces… It weren't even that many, admittedly, even though it looked like it: they were using a whole repertoire of jutsus which made it look like there were more of them than there actually were. They seemed to know them all and use them all: various types of clones, summons, gen-jutsus, marionettes, everything. Not to forget the strong allies they apparently had…

Somehow weird to see how fast things could change… Only this morning the whole world had looked different… it had been a rather nice day, with sun and everything, a bit tense all the same, but nothing compared to this here. It was different now… everything had changed…

The streets which had been so quiet and empty this morning were now full of people and filled with screams. The sun might still be shining, or maybe the moon, it was impossible to tell with all this smoke and fume that rose like a dome above the village. Actually, it was evening already or maybe even night, either way it was supposed to be dark outside and yet it wasn't. Everything was brightly illuminated, but not with the nice kind of light, which invited you to spend some time outdoors, but with the kind of light, which made the warning bells ring in your head and made you want to run off as far away as possible… And then also the colours… as if they had all been switched off, except for grey and orange. Everything was just a different shade of grey and orange and this combination had a disturbing effect on the psyche. It looked as if the sky was on fire, but that was a misjudgement… It was the village, its buildings, its forests, its streets everything. Thinking it was only the sky was comforting though, because the sky was much farther away and far beyond the damage a simple fire could do…

Just imagining things to be different couldn't change reality though. It couldn't revive the people, who had lost their lives here. It couldn't fill up the crater, which had destroyed a part of the town wall, as well as great parts of the main-house of the Hyuga clan and various other buildings. It couldn't extinguish the sea of flames, which had spread where the market place was supposed to be. And it couldn't scare off the giant beasts, which seemed to have stepped right out of one of the most disturbing nightmares. A nightmare. That's what it looked like. Some surrealistic nightmare. The smoke, the burning sky, the monsters - a nightmare, with the only difference that no one was possibly sleeping. Did that make it a daymare? It didn't matter, it was happening and no one would have thought of that…

This morning, their greatest worry had still been the decision making and what would happen to Sasuke and now they were running through the war zone which had only a few hours ago still been their home and tried to fight the enemies and save as many people as possible… and they seemed damn unsuccessful at what they were doing…

And that after everything had seemed so easy at the beginning…

Once Tsunade had sent them out, they had already found a lot of ninja, either gathered around the Hokage building or already engaged in fierce fights with the enemy. There were only few of them by then, at least inside the village, outside it must have looked completely different but they couldn't have told from where they were. It was then that a long shadow had drawn over the great place in front of them, darker than the other shadows and as they had looked up, there had been this huge bird, the informant must have been talking about, the _crane_… well it required a lot of imagination to see a crane in that beast, but then calling it by any other name would have been even more devious… Its feathers seemed very smooth and were entirely grey, but a weird kind of grey, not because of the colour itself, but because of the way it looked, its texture - it reminded of the skin of a blindworm… as if it was a mixture of bird and reptile… It was just the long and pointed beak and the shape of the head that reminded a little of a crane…

They had attacked it at once - after all it was this flying beast which channelled the enemies into the village, so by killing it, they should have been able to keep those ninjas from entering and relocate the battle to somewhere outside of the village, where there were no civilians and things that could be broken. They wouldn't make it that easy though… all attacks seemed to deflect from the birds feathers, as if it was mirroring their attacks, no matter if weapons or jutsus, everything came back to them and they ended up with doing more harm to themselves, than their opponents had been able to do to them up to that point, until they realized it was useless.

Now more and more ninjas came into the village, but it had seemed to be a futile move of them, because once the twenty or thirty ninja, the crane was able to carry simultaneously, came up, they were at once attacked by at least twice as many Konoha-nins.

There was smoke everywhere and fires had started spreading, as a result of some katon-jutsus which had been directed at the bird earlier on and had been thrown back at once. There was an absolute chaos, just people and smoke and noise and grey and orange, so it was almost impossible to tell your friends from your enemies and it had taken quite some time until they had noticed that there weren't any corpses, at least not from the enemies… It was as the Hyugas had come up, almost 30 minutes after the fighting had started, that this discovery had been made. With their Byakugan it was easy for them to see through all this turmoil and to the absolute dismay of everyone, they had proclaimed that not a single enemy ninja had set foot in the village, yet. Up to now they'd been more or less fighting themselves…

This discovery was shocking and demoralizing all the same… at least they had found out so early, otherwise they would have overexerted themselves even more and it seemed, as if that was exactly what the enemies wanted… they were probably sitting around out there, waiting for the right time to strike…

Tsunade finally came out, with the most terrifying and furious expression you could possibly imagine her face to bring up - they should have placed her on the town wall, somewhere where everyone could see her, then their attackers would have probably thought twice, before carrying on with their attacks…

After letting her eyes roam over the chaos in front of her, she gathered Shikamaru, Neji, Kakashi and Yamato around her and sent Kakashi away again, only a couple of minutes later, before Neji started bringing her up to date about what had happened and what was going on outside of the village at the moment and together with Yamato and Shikamaru they then tried to think of a strategy to take them on…

…

…

Meanwhile, in the enemy camp, the at least hundred attendant ninja went through their plans all over again, optimistic as everything was working flawlessly up to now, if things would stay like that, they'd have Konoha invaded by the end of the day. They'd become history. Immortal. All of them. Every single ninja clan which had joined their alliance against the Hidden Leave. Just the thought that a mere coalition of clans would be able to bring down one of the five great shinobi nations… this day would go down in history and they'd become legends…

They had everything at the ready; no incidents yet; the leave-people were still entirely in the dark about what was going on. You should think they'd be a bit smarter than that… but apparently, they were entirely overrated. That was probably the thing… they weren't that good, the reason why they were feared was most likely because of their size and their strong allies, however now their size didn't do them much good now, but rather brought them even nearer to their own downfall and as this was a surprise attack, they couldn't rely on their allies either… It was just a matter of time now; once they had either killed themselves or realized that they had tricked them, that's when the real battle started for them…

A lot of men had gathered in the shadows of some trees, mostly separated into groups who were wearing similar clothes or armours and probably belonged together in some way. There were some others, too, who were a bit further off from the rest and sat on the ground forming a huge circle, which was emphasized by the black squiggly symbols they had drawn on the smooth, frozen earth. They were biting their time until they got the signal to perform their summoning, same as the other group of ninjas, which sat in the woods on the opposite side of the village.

The huge bird, which had been skimming over the village the entire time, came back and landed on the ground, right where they had set up their main camp. Two men, both wearing a traditional, colourful ornate samurai armour and a matching helmet, which hid most parts of their faces, jumped off the crane's back and walked into the midst of the gathering, where one of them raised his voice.

"It seems that Konoha has finally seen through us." The one, whose armour was covered with blue and yellow symbols and patterns explained briefly.

"They have stopped their attacks for now." The other, who was wearing the same armour only with red and brown patterns, stated in a monotonous voice, similar to that of the other one, who again raised his voice.

"And their Hokage finally showed up."

A mocking murmur went through the crowd and some even started laughing boastfully, when the mood suddenly changed and they spun around at once, with alarmed expressions on almost everyone's face. It was a quickly moving shadow, which had caught their attention, their bird wasn't in the air any more, accordingly it had to be the enemy, so all eyes turned into the sky, everyone at the ready to attack at any second. They saw a weird white, dragon, flying in circles right above their heads and they would have attacked it at once, if they hadn't seen a black piece of cloth with red clouds on it…

"Akatsuki…?" A huge man with a bear-like appearance, stated and shot a sceptical glare at the two Akatsuki, who stepped off the dragon, once it had landed right in their midst, which is why quite a few of them had to get out of the way in order to not get buried underneath it.

"Well, well… look what we have here…" The blonde Akatsuki murmured, as he walked a small circle through their midst in a confident stride, to peer into every single face of the here attendant people.

"What do you want here?!" The ursine man enquired in a harsh voice, while he took a step forward and planted himself in front of the Akatsuki.

"_Me_…?" Deidara pointed at himself and started chuckling. "What do _you_ want here?!"

"Show them, sempai!" Tobi cheered, from out of the shadows of the dragon's wings, but right after he had exclaimed this, he found himself in the centre of numerous hateful glares, so he retreated even farther backwards and emitted a timid squeal.

"_We_ are here to take over Konoha." Their spokesman exclaimed in a boastful tone and stressed his statement by some chesty laughter, which was taken up by the others as well.

"_You_…?!" Deidara joined in on the laughter, however his motivation differed a little from theirs and they were well aware of that. "I wanna see that…"

"We're almost there, give us another two hours and we're done here." This time it was someone else, somewhere amid the crowd of people, who addressed the Akatsuki and was at once supported by some agreeing outcries.

"Yeah, right…"Deidara still couldn't help but to chuckle, as did Tobi too, only in a far more hesitant manner than his partner.

"So now - what do you want here?" The bearish man enquired, all back to business now.

"We have some business to take care of and quite frankly, I'm afraid that your being here, might get in our path…" Deidara again walked in small circles through the centre of the gathering, while his right sleeve fluttered loosely after him and he had a pensive expression on his face, whereas the people around him looked rather angry and indignant about his words…

"Sempai…!" Tobi called out, well aware of the change in the mood of the surrounding people and not in the least happy about it.

"Let's make a deal…" Deidara proposed with apparent amusement in his voice, while he boldly scrutinized the people surrounding him. "We'll give you a hand with destroying Konoha and you'll stay out of our business. Deal?"

"Tze… you think we're this stupid? What is your business?" Someone enquired and caused Deidara to shake his head with laughter, before a mischievous expression took form on his face and he glared at the spokesman, who stood now right in front of him. "We want the jinchuuriki. Alive. I don't care what you do with the rest of the village, but if it's just about destruction I'd be happy to help you out with that…" He snickered and now the expressions on the other people's faces changed to some extend.

"I guess we have a deal then…" Their spokesman declared, after registering the rather positive change in the mood of his fellows and shook hands with Deidara and now Tobi finally dared to come out of his hide-out, too and they started replanning their strategy.

…

…

Back in Konoha, the villagers had now made up some strategies as well and were starting to get organised, now that they had at least had a brief break, in which the attackers had drawn back for a while… Even though they weren't so sure if that was to be considered as a good sign or a bad one…

Tsunade had again vanished inside the Hokage tower and numerous teams had now formed and began taking up their assigned post. First there were the scouting troops, which were supposed to find out as much as possible about the opponents, their plans and their military force. Then there were quite numerous evacuation teams, with at least one or two medic-nins in every single one of them, whose duty it was to get the civilians out of harms way and take care of the injured people, who were quite numerous already… The last teams were there to defend the village, which meant they were supposed to oppose the enemies' attacks and start a counter attack on their own, once they had attained sufficient information from the scouting squads.

Sakura and Sayuri were in the same evacuation squad, together with two other Jounin they didn't really know though and they had been ordered to go to the market place and take care of the people there. A pretty silly joke, because the place between the Hokage tower and the Academy was more or less one huge sea of flames with everything that was possibly able to catch fire bright ablaze and in case someone should have actually been there, all help would have come too late…

"What now?" One of the Jounin, Gôzu was his name, enquired. The man, who wore a dark blue beanie with his headband tied around it, was a very righteous person and didn't want to do anything to violate the clear orders they had been given by no one other than the Hokage herself.

"Well what do you think?" Sakura rolled her eyes and stared at the tall and slightly nervous seeming man to her side. "We can't go into the flames, so we'll just take care of the area surrounding them, there'll be enough to do there…" She stated, while her emerald eyes drifted to the side and came across their first patient: a man, about 50 years old, who rolled around on the ground in the attempt to extinguish the flames, which had ignited his clothes.

Without having to say anything to each other, they darted towards the man and the other Jounin, a tall dark-haired man with a thick scar in the middle of his face, used a Suiton jutsu to quench the flames. As soon as he was done, the now entirely soaked man struggled to his feet, even before Sayuri and Sakura could heal the burns which covered his skin and then fell to his knees in front of Hasha, the Jounin who had only just saved his life and begged: "Please, my grandson, he is still in there!" He pointed to the house right next to him, which was obscured by dark-grey clouds of smoke, coming out of the open door and the shattered windows, which must have burst from the heat.

Nodding at each other, Hasha again used one of his water-jutsus and directed it at the open doorway, while Gôzu stormed into the house at once. A couple of seconds later, he jumped out of the second-floor window again, a crying, but apparently unharmed little boy in his arms. Sayuri took care of him at once, while Sakura had started to heal the old man, who repeatedly expressed his gratitude and was hard to keep away from his grandson, even though that made healing the two of them rather difficult, but their behaviour was understandable…

Once they were done, they sent them to the hospital, just in case and carried on doing their round and had their hands full of work again, once they turned the next corner where injured people were already piling up. Another team of medic-nins was already there, even though they looked rather overwhelmed, which wasn't really surprising though, considering how many people there were. Sakura and Sayuri started healing the first ones right away, while Hasha and Gôzu started bringing the not so gravely wounded people to the hospital.

They weren't even halfway through, with treating the people, even though another team of medic-nins had arrived to their support, when that crane-like beast was again in the air and a surge of panic swept over the people. It flew in wide circles through the air, intimidating the villagers by its mere presence and if that hadn't been enough it was also joined by another beast, a white dragon which was about just as big and once the dragon had appeared in the air, there was a deafening bang and the earth started shaking throughout the entire village. Once the noise had faded there was an unnatural silence, even though the air was still filled with the voice of crying children, screams and yet more noise, but after that bang all other sounds seemed weirdly hollow and muffled…

"What was that?!" Someone asked, but no one answered. Everyone's attention was fixed on the huge, deep black trail of smoke, which billowed into the air and covered the sky at the western end of Konoha, not too far away from the Hokage tower presumably.

Then everything happened very fast. Before they even knew what was going on, they were suddenly surrounded by the enemy ninja, who at once started attacking them, regardless of the fact that they were mainly a group of injured people and therefore no threat to them.

At the moment there were just four Jounin and five medic-nin, who were thus responsible for protecting at least thirty defenceless civilians against about ten opponents. The first thing to do was to get them away from them – otherwise fighting would become very arduous, but that was easier said than done. If they had been in the lead of this fight they might have done so, but their opponents seemed to be a bit better off, as they needn't consider harming non-involved people and weren't already exhausted, as the Konoha-nins without a doubt were.

There was a great difference in the enemies' skills; some of them were hard to take serious, as they didn't even make it through a single minute of their fights, whereas others turned out to be rather persistent…

There was another explosion, at the other side of the village now, but too far away for them to make out anything through the smoke that was surrounding them anyway. They had been able to take out six of their opponents without many difficulties, however the remaining four, worked in a team and were soon joined by yet two other ones, even though these turned out to be lone fighters, which didn't make them any less dangerous though… They had split up: the four Jounin, Sakura and Sayuri, were fighting, so it was six versus six now, while the remaining three medic-nin took care of the wounded and tried to get them out of the way as fast as possible.

The quartet, which was fighting the Jounin, mainly relied on fire-elementary jutsus and didn't really seem too interested in fighting, but were rather fooling around and ran through the entire village, while trying to set as many buildings, trees, people and whatever else there was on fire, just for the sake of doing as much damage as they could. Therefore Hasha was so to speak responsible for cleaning up behind them with his water-jutsus, while the other three tried to stop them and even managed to take one of them out with a well-aimed stroke of Gôzu's katana. However this action seemed to get the remaining one's even angrier and the first action they took to avenge their partner was to go for a group of wounded civilians, which were at that moment being treated by a couple of medic-nin.

They could only see a huge ball of fire fly towards the group, but they were just too far away to do anything about that. However after it had reached the group the fireball remained there and seemed bigger than it should have - people just didn't burn like that… and then, suddenly there was a rattling sound and they could see how the fire vanished, as the wooden barrier it had ignited, folded to the side and underneath it emerged a group of not burning and yet not unharmed people.

Confused, by what they had just seen, the three rogue-nin had lowered their guard and were thus surprised by a thick root which shot out of the ground suddenly and crushed one man's throat, before it slung around the other two and kept them in place. Gôzu took advantage of that at once and slammed the handle of his katana against their heads, to knock them out.

"Thanks, Yamato-taichô!" The Jounin murmured, as the ANBU came forth from behind a tree.

"Never mind. It's good that you didn't kill them." He muttered, as he released his wood-jutsu and peered down at them: "Bring them to Ibiki – maybe he can get something out of them…"

"Understood. " Gôzu saluted and shouldered the two of them at once, while the others plunged into the fray again.

…

…

Sakura and Sayuri were still busy with their opponents; they tried to back each other up as best as was possible under the present circumstances, which is probably why the meanwhile three rogue-nins tried to separate them, but up to now they were still able to resist them. It seemed to be only a matter of time though, as first the healing and now the fighting was really getting to them and they slowly but surely ran out of chakra, especially considering how much Sakura used for her attacks…

Their opponents on the other hand didn't look too good either; the Haruno had been able to hit one in his rips and he was taking a break now in the cover of the others and Sayuri had been able to hit the other two with her kunai and even though it weren't any life-threatening wounds, they nevertheless slowed them down. You could say their degree of exhaustion was rather level, but then their opponents still held the advantage because they were superior in number, especially considering that one of them was a marionette user, so actually the two of them were opposing five enemies.

A rattling sound was heard, as one of the marionettes, chattered with its wooden teeth, before it opened its mouth up wide and numerous tiny needles came flying at the two kunoichi. They both jumped to the side, into the shelter of an only just collapsed building, which was still partly on fire, when one of the rogue-nins who was wearing a silly skull mask, was suddenly right behind them and used a futon-jutsu to fan the flames anew and have the remnants of the house fly about their heads.

They both did their best in dodging the burning missiles, while Sakura also punched away some of the bigger pieces, but distracted as they were from this rather difficult task, they didn't notice that they were again surrounded by the two marionettes. Moving in the shadows of all this debris and the smoke, they approached the two girls, with a long scythe in each of their hands. The two medic-nins had only just noticed the marionettes, when they already hauled their weapons at them and there was no space to dodge them. They tried to get away by jumping into the air and then at best over the wall-remnants and out of here again, but Sakura was too slow. She was only just in the air when one of the marionettes hit her with its scythe and thrust it deep into her calf, causing her to fall to the ground again. Sayuri was already standing on one of the bigger boulders when she noticed that her team-mate was missing and when she turned around again, she could see a pink shock of hair in the middle of the smoke and the marionettes were quickly moving into her direction and had almost reached her.

Panic started building up in the violet-haired girl, as she searched for a way to save her friend, but this wasn't the right time to pore over an idea, she had to act, or it would be too late. No longer hesitating, Sayuri jumped back into the middle of the burning building, right where she assumed Sakura to be, because the smoke had increased to an extent that made seeing almost impossible, which she tried to use to her advantage. Before she had reached her however, the marionettes intercepted her, when she was still in midair and aimed their weapons at her instead. The blades of four scythes slashed through her simultaneously, but then her body turned into numerous butterflies, which flew towards the marionettes and attached themselves to them, especially to their joints, until they covered them entirely. Meanwhile the real Sayuri had made out the hideout of the puppet master amidst the cloud of smoke and sneaked up on him, all the time clutching her sleeve in front of her mouth to breathe in as little of the smoky air as possible. It didn't seem as if he knew what had just happened. He fidgeted with his arms, trying to steer his marionettes, but they wouldn't move, then a second later he had a kunai in his chest and fell with a gasping sound to the ground.

After taking a good look at her surroundings, Sayuri went back to Sakura, who was likewise trying to cover her mouth and had robbed further to the side, away from the fire. Once Sayuri had reached her, she put an arm around her waist and pulled her upwards and leaped out of this ruin – luckily the pinkette was still able to use at least one of her legs, so that made getting her out of there a lot easier.

As soon as they were out in the fresh air, they took a deep breath in, only to realize that the air wasn't as fresh and clear as they had thought or hoped it would be, which was actually not even surprising, seeing as there was smoke and dust and soot just about everywhere, so the two girls had to cough miserably, when another problem called attention to itself – the two other rogue-nins.

You could clearly see, how a downhearted expression rose on both their faces, once their eyes came upon the belligerent ninjas, who didn't falter to launch at them. Sayuri pulled her arm away from Sakura at once and grabbed for a kunai, when there were suddenly two people in front of them and blocked their view of their enemies.

"_Hakkeshô Kaiten_"

They perceived a familiar voice and then there was a light blue sphere of chakra in front of them and the next second they heard a loud cracking noise, as the two rogue-nins were hauled into one of the burning buildings right behind them.

"Neji, Shino!" Sayuri exclaimed in a relieved tone, before she tugged her arm around Sakura again and helped her sit down, before she began healing the really painful looking injury on her leg.

"Ouch…" The pink-haired kunoichi gritted her teeth, but then focussed her attention on their two saviours, who had really shown up at the very last second…

"Are you okay?" Neji turned to the two fairly battered and soot-covered girls, while Shino just remained where he was, but directed his sunglassed eyes towards them.

"More or less…" Sakura answered and cast a plaintive look at her leg, which was now engulfed by a bright green light, which kind of resembled the colour of her eyes.

"Alright… I wouldn't say as good as new, but it shouldn't hurt too much at least – still you shouldn't overexert it …"Sayuri sighed as she had finished healing her friend, before she rose to her feet and turned to Neji and Shino. "What are you doing here? I thought you were with the scouting troops, somewhere outside…"

"I was, but now there isn't anyone left there, they finally started their attack…" The Hyuga stated in a blank voice, taking the '_you'_ as a singular marker, even though Sayuri had actually directed this question at the two of them.

"So… who are they?" Sakura enquired, as she rose to her feet as well and started carefully stretching her leg, before she placed it on the ground and shifted her weight on it.

"Th-" Shino started, but was beaten to it by Neji.

"We don't know… they seem to come from different clans and villages… and they are also supported by Akatsuki…"

"What?!" Sakura and Sayuri exhaled sharply and looked with widened eyes at the Hyuga-heir, while Shino seemed to have receded into the background and looked rather unhappy about that.

"Akatsuki!" Sakura repeated, but then let out a pained hiss as she had moved her leg in the wrong way.

"Maybe you should go to the hospital and help there…" Sayuri suggested, while casting an anxious side-glance at the pinkette – she didn't want to be too direct, as the mood between the two of them was still rather chastened and she didn't want to make it any worse, by telling her what to do… "But you can't go there by yourself…" She turned a pleading gaze at Neji, who then nodded and closed his eyes briefly.

"Shino will bring you." He stated, directed at Sakura, when he heard a sullen snort coming form the Aburame and hence turned his attention to him. "What is it, Shino?"

"Hmm…" He grumbled sullenly, apparently engaged in an inner turmoil as to whether he should tell him or not and eventually decided to do so. "You always have to be in the centre of attention, don't you?" He stated in a dour, hoarse tone, but the uncomprehending look in the Hyuga's pale eyes told him that he hadn't even noticed that he had repeatedly overlooked him and stolen his show in the last few minutes.

"Hmpf…" He snorted again, but then planted himself in front of Sakura, who shot a slightly timid look at him but then went with him.

"There…" Neji looked down at Sayuri, who looked rather worn out already and held his closed fist in front of her. With a puzzled expression, Sayuri stretched her hand out underneath it and then felt something small fall into it.

"What…?" Sayuri scrutinized the small brown pill in her open palm and then listened to the Hyuga, as he began explaining.

"It's a soldier pill – Kiba gave me… It's my last, but you look like you could need it…" He stated in a calm voice and observed how the violet-haired girl swallowed the pill and then thanked him for it, before they heard another loud bang and cocked their heads to the side simultaneously.

"W-What is this…?" Sayuri stammered, as she looked at a huge dark silhouette, which was outlined against the thick clouds of smoke, which seemed to be just about everywhere.

"It's… a summon…" Neji scrutinized the beast with his Byakugan closely and then added. "A wolf… We should hurry"

"Uh-huh…" Sayuri nodded, noticeably intimidated, she really hoped it was just a trick of light that made that '_wolf'_ look so terribly huge… either way this thing would be dangerous, so they probably needed all medical aid they could get; she could really call herself lucky that Neji had given her that pill…

"Don't worry, I'll watch your back, just stay close to me…" The Hyuga-heir encouraged her and led the way right into the middle of the fray. They hadn't even reached it, when they were nearly knocked over by a body, which came flying at them. It was one of their ninjas, but all medical aid would have come too late for him, his entire chest seemed to have been blown or more likely bitten out and now it became evident that there was no trick of light - that wolf really was about twice as high as a normal house.

There were already a lot of their ninja, who were fighting that beast and loads of the enemy ninja as well, who tried to deter them from doing so, even though that was probably a waste of effort, as that summon didn't really look as if it needed any protection…

They stuck to their plans - Sayuri started healing the injured men, which were just as she had predicted quite high in number, while Neji kept everyone away from her and supported the present ninja in their fight against the summon. This seemed to be the area, which had suffered the most from the attacks, it was entirely terminated, there were no houses any more, or any other thing that indicated that this was a place where people used to live…

Other than that crane it didn't seem to be invincible, but they couldn't really tell for sure, because they hadn't really been able to land a direct attack yet – that beast either dodged it, or they were intercepted by the rogue-nins.

This wasn't really an opponent for Neji, as he was a close range fighter; however he was rather successful in getting rid of the enemies around him, which made things easier for the others at least, but then it didn't seem to make too much of a difference as there were always new ones to take over their positions. And it weren't just clones or illusions this time - with his Kekkai Genkai Neji could easily tell the real ones from the fakes, therefore it was quite frustrating to see just how many opponents there were… He was just engaged in a duel with a tai-jutsu user, when he saw how one of the enemies rushed towards the group of injured people and opened a scroll, out of which numerous dangerous looking weapons shot out, aiming straight for them. In the blink of an eye, the Hyuga had abandoned his own opponent and rushed towards the wounded people, trying to save what was left to be saved, but it didn't look as if he would make it in time.

"_Bubun Baika no Jutsu_"

Neji came to a stop and gave up on getting there, as he saw how Choji, who had expanded his right hand to an unbelievable size, had appeared right next to the wounded people and swept the weapons away, as if they were merely some bothersome flies.

"There you go - that's my son!" Choji's father who looked like a perfect resemblance of his son, only that his hair was much longer and had a more conspicuous red colour cheered, obviously proud of his offspring.

"Let's show them our new jutsu!" Chôza called out in an enthusiastic voice and earned a consenting nod from his son.

They stood quite a distance away from each other, but started doing some handsigns simultaneously and a second later there were two spiky, human balls rolling at a tremendous speed towards the huge wolf, steamrolling everything that came in their path, which were quite a lot of things or rather people… They took down quite a lot of the enemies at a single blow, but that beast was still untouched, as it had jumped up in time and was now standing on the roof of a burning building, baring its teeth angrily.

"Damn… we need to get away here…" Someone said, apparently disillusioned by how this fight was proceeding… after all there were at least twenty or thirty Konoha-nins fighting that beast and not just some random ones, but a few members of the most popular and reputable clans – there were people of the Hyuga-clan, the Akimichi-clan and numerous Jounin and ANBU – some of the best ninja in the entire Leave Village and yet they couldn't do anything about that beast and this was just one of them… there was also that crane and the dragon and then all these rogue-nins in general… things were really looking bad…

"Do not despair people of Konoha – wherever there is a fair maiden in distress, that is where I am - coming right form the Myôbokuzan to your rescue, it is I the great toad mountain sage Jiiii--ra--iyyaaa!!!"

After this heroic, self-celebrating entrance speech, all heads turned into the direction where the booming voice had come from and there he was, Jiraiya, standing on top of a fairly big and yet comparatively small, bright orange toad, his arms stretched out wide, as if he was surfing and he showed his gleaming teeth in a most bewitching smile, while his long white hair fluttered in the wind.

"Jiraiya-sama!" Several people screamed with new found enthusiasm, now that one of the three legendary Sannin had come to their aid. It seemed as if they had cheered a bit too early though, because that wolf-beast didn't look too pleased about the appearance of that toad, so the first thing it did, was to leap off the roof and thus cause the entire house to break down from the force of its jump. Burning debris, scattered shingles and pointed rock fragments darted through the air like missiles, causing the present people to back away from the centre of the fray.

While the medic-nins used the chance that their opponents were distracted to evacuate the wounded, the fighting ones rushed with new fervour directly towards their enemies, trying to clear the way for Jiraiya so that he could fight that summon without interruption. There wasn't much to be seen of the Sannin as the wolf rushed towards him, but once the smoke had cleared, his toad seemed to have grown to a considerable extent and was holding the beast by its throat, with its slobbering snout and not to forget the razorblade sharp fangs only a (human) hand's breadth away from the toad's face.

"Gamasushi!" The white-haired man incited his summon in an encouraging tone, which hence nodded briefly and then hauled the wolf into a nearby building, again causing masses of debris to fly through the air and harm those unlucky people who weren't able to evade them in time. Before the wolf had even struggled to its paws again, Gamasushi, a huge pale green toad with dark brown marks on its back, had drawn both its swords and prepared for the approaching attack, which wasn't long in coming… With an incredible speed, the wolf darted towards them, so the toad jumped backwards and once the monster was close enough, it performed a cross-movement with its swords and cut off the wolf's head by doing so – achieving what numerous ninja haven't been able to do, in barely two minutes…

Deafening cheers filled the air, the second the wolf vanished in a puff of smoke, it seemed as if they had forgotten that the real victory was still a long way off, but if that was the case or not didn't really matter, as this turn for the better had noticeably given new hope and motivation to the people and considering that they were surrounded by their wounded or dying friends and their destroyed homes that was really a great achievement…

…

…

The group of medic-nin had a rather hard time with getting all the injured people away, without them sustaining any more harm in the course of their journey.

The smoky air made it hard to breathe and diminished ones sight and there were enemies just about everywhere, but even more unpredictable was the danger emanating from the collapsing buildings and no one seemed to have found the time yet to extinguish the fires…

They were merely three medic-nin and seven nurses, but thirteen wounded people and their guardians had gotten lost right after Jiraiya had shown up, so they had to make the way to the hospital without any escort.

"Watch out!" Someone called, as there were suddenly three men to their side, looking fairly battered but still ready to fight. They seemed to be of the weak kind though, it took only a couple of kunai, riddled with kibakufudas and they were done for.

They had been able to cover another hundred metres, even though it had taken them nearly five minutes to do so, when they heard some screams, coming from out of the ruins of a house.

"That's a child!" A nurse, Sayuri had worked with a couple of times, cried out with a shocked expression on her tired face, clearly exhausted by having to drag a semi-conscious man with her.

"I'll get her – you go ahead!" The violet-haired girl exclaimed and after taking a short look at their small group, she rushed towards the remnants of the house, always calling out in hope of an answer, so it would be easier to locate the little girl, but she didn't receive any reply.

With a queasy feeling, Sayuri rummaged through the piles of luckily not burning debris, when she heard a feeble cry, not far away from where she was standing. Carefully, she fought herself through the remnants of this building, when she eventually came upon an overturned cupboard, buried underneath what seemed to be half a wall. One of its doors was slightly ajar, but you could only see a little gap as there were more rock pieces and debris in front of it. Through what little of the inside she was able to see, as it was on top of everything bathed in complete darkness, Sayuri spotted a blond shock of hair and made her way, towards the cupboard at once, where she started to dig her way to it by shoving everything away which blocked her path.

It took her nearly five minutes until she had finally cleared the way to the little girl, who had hidden in the cupboard, as everything had started collapsing, and got her out of there. She didn't seem to be hurt, though, but she was definitely in a state of shock and enquired repeatedly after her parents, who have been out shopping when everything happened…

After healing the few scratches, the little girl had sustained, Sayuri took her piggyback and carried her out of the house, trying to talk to her, just to make sure she wouldn't faint or something, when they suddenly heard a voice.

"Finally, someone I know…"

As soon as she recognized that voice, her blood ran cold and even though she didn't want to, she forced herself to turn her head up to look into the sky, and the shocked expression on her face beforehand, was nothing compared to that which manifested on her face, once her suspicion was confirmed…

…

…


	50. Invasion part 2

**50. Invasion part 2**

"You…" Sayuri murmured, her voice hollow with shock, as she caught sight of a huge white dragon with two men, both dressed in black cloaks with red clouds on them, standing on top of it.

Deidara – They had again thought he was dead and yet he wasn't… Did Akatsuki only employ immortals?

"You're a friend of that blonde brat, aren't you? So now – you get to choose, we can either do things the easy way or the hard way, I wouldn't say that I have any preferences…" He chuckled ambiguously and his partner joined in on that at once. "Now tell me where the Kyuubi is!"

So he was still after Naruto… well it was probably a good thing that she didn't know where he was, but it was rather unlikely that he would believe her that…

"Run…" She whispered to the girl, as she put her back down and that one didn't need to be told twice. After one brief questioning glance, she spun around and ran off, as fast as she could.

"Kukuku… does that mean you prefer it the hard way?" The blonde sneered enthusiastically, while he already gripped with his left and only hand into his bag and pulled out some clay.

"Spit it out, where is he?" He stared down at his palm in an almost affectionate manner, before he cast his eyes up again and shot a piercing glance at the violet-haired girl underneath him.

"I don't know, but even if, I wouldn't tell you…" She muttered, while her eyes darted from side to side, in search of an escape route, or anyone who might help her, but things didn't look too good for her.

"Deidara-sempai, she can't tell us anything if you kill her right away." The masked man said in a pensive voice, as he stared down at the tiny explosives in his fellow Akatsuki's hand.

"You heard her, she won't tell us anyway and there are others, so let's just have a bit fun, maybe she'll change her mind then…" The blonde muttered with a mocking grin on his face. Then his partner said something else, but Sayuri didn't hear it anymore, as she had used their conversation, which implied at least a little bit distraction and inattention on their part, to make her escape.

She just had to get anywhere, where there were other people, which should be at least manageable, as the whole village seemed to be one huge battlefield. She was wrong though. She had only covered about twenty metres, when there was suddenly an explosion right in front of her, forcing her to come to a halt and when she turned to the side, in the attempt to run around it, she crashed right into the Akatsuki with the swirled orange mask, who had all of a sudden appeared right next to her.

A startled wheeze parted her lips, as she crashed head-first against the rock hard torso of that nuke-nin, who emitted a baffled "_Ui_…", before she turned her head up and looked with frightened eyes at him, trying to think of anything she could do now…

"Are you sure you don't know where he is?" She heard Deidara chuckle somewhere behind her and then took some hesitant steps backwards, away from Tobi, who didn't do anything to prevent her from doing so, but rubbed his hands over his chest, as if she had seriously hurt him.

Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, she drew a smoke-bomb out of her bag and threw it right in front of that masked man's feet, waiting for the smoke to spread before she again tried to make her escape. Yet another time her plan was rather unsuccessful, as Deidara just randomly threw some of his explosives to the ground, nearly hitting her already with the first of them.

She summoned her butterflies, which surrounded her like brightly glowing fog, actually a rather conspicuous action, but at least they shielded her from some of the smaller rock pieces which flew through the air as a result of Deidara's explosions. Once he saw the radiant spot within the huge smoke screen, which covered most of the ground area, Deidara directed his explosives straight toward it, already wearing a victorious grin on his face. It didn't last too long though, as he saw his opponent run out of the cloud of smoke after a couple of seconds, at the very other end of where he had assumed her to be.

"A diversion…" He hissed, looking a little bit angry, however the prospect of playing around a bit more soon brought a smile back to his face and he took up the chase at once.

It was hard running away with all these obstacles in the way, but she was sure that she had bought herself enough time to reach the Hokage tower, which wasn't too far away now, she could already see quite some people there, so maybe they'd have at least a chance against these two Akatsukis. Hopefully… Otherwise she was just leading them into disaster, or was rather bringing disaster to them…

She again perceived the flapping of wings, but didn't dare look back out of fear that one second of hesitation would cost her life… Then there was an explosion to her left, so she jumped onto the roof of a low building on her right side, only a stone's throw away from the place she had actually targeted, which didn't seem to have been a clever choice, though, because against her calculation, the Akatsuki was now right above her and again dropped some of his clay-spiders onto the roof, which exploded as they were right behind her. It was too late for her to get away, so she fell down, once the house collapsed and was buried underneath some debris. It was a hard landing, which caused her to lose her consciousness for a couple of seconds, as she crashed with her head against something solid.

Dense whirls of dust and dirt filled the air and the moment Sayuri regained her senses again, she had to cough miserably and pressed her burning eyes shut, which didn't really make orienting herself easier. Once the dust had settled, she had a rough idea of where she was, there was hardly anything left of the house so she could see the top of the mountain with the Hokage-faces and the fire-symbol on the roof of the Hokage tower, but then a shadow descended upon the remnants of the building and she saw the belly of Deidara's dragon, until it had flown far enough down for her to spot the Akatsuki, who again wore a self-assertive and highly amused expression on his face.

Panic took over each and every cell in Sayuri's body and she was caught in a temporary paralysis, until she got a grip on herself and tried to pull herself upwards, only to realize that her leg was buried underneath a huge boulder, making it impossible for her to get away there.

"Last chance now – where is the Kyuubi-jinchuuriki?" The blonde Akatsuki enquired, with a manic glimmer in his blue eye, which became all the more intensive as he noticed the fear swelling up in the girl underneath him, who had just realized that she couldn't escape.

"3-2-1 – okay you asked for it!" Deidara laughed and then the tail of his dragon moved forward, until it pointed into her direction and a noticeably bigger explosive came out of the tip of it and then flew into her direction. Sayuri tried hard to shove the boulder off her leg, but in her weakened state, she couldn't even move it the fragment of an inch, even though she wasn't so sure if she could have done it when entirely healthy and rested either…

Suddenly all sounds faded; as if someone had pushed the mute button and she could only hear her violently throbbing heart, as the weirdly shaped explosive approached her in slow motion. She squeezed her eyes firmly shut, as if not seeing this thing would keep it from existing, but her logic didn't seem to count in the real world. Then there was a weird sound, like that of twittering birds and she felt something solid press against her body and then some warm wind wafting against her face.

A second later there was the sound of numerous explosions.

Another second later it was already fading.

She could hear the hollow reverberation, until it was gone and her heart still pulsated in her ears, which meant she wasn't dead… As this realization occurred to her, she slowly opened her eyes and first noticed that she was moving. Not on her own of course and not for much longer; the person who was carrying her came to a stop and as she craned her neck a little, she could finally peer into her saviour's face.

"Sasuke…" She exhaled barely audibly and caused the Uchiha to turn his deep red eyes down to her. They were standing in front of a small shop, which was still fairly intact, when he put her down to the ground, but slung his arms around her again, as her legs seemed to buckle underneath her.

"You're hurt…" He looked down at her left leg, which had suffered quite a lot from being buried underneath that big boulder, before he peered into her eyes, not missing the pained look in them, but she just nodded and then gazed past him, seeing the rest of his team and Naruto standing right in front of the Hokage building, especially the sour look on Karin's face caught her attention; her eyes were narrowed disapprovingly and her face was almost as red as her hair, but maybe that was just a trick of light…

She detached her eyes from them again, unable to keep a light blush from appearing on her cheeks, before she focused them on Sasuke again, as he leaned her against the shop and helped her sit down against it.

"Stay here." He ordered, before he turned around and stared at the Akatsuki, who seemed to seethe with rage.

"Sasuke…" He spat out the name like acid and bit on his bottom lip, but the Uchiha seemed rather unimpressed…

"Deidara…"

"Tobi!" The masked man had suddenly re-appeared and was now standing right underneath Deidara's dragon, but without paying attention to that one, Deidara flew down and nearly ran him over.

"Woah – sempai!" Tobi shrieked in his funny voice and rushed out of the way.

"What do we do now Sasuke?" His team had closed up to him and as soon as Naruto had noticed that, he had, to their dismay, done so, too and was now kneeling next to Sayuri, while listening to their conversation.

Not averting his eyes from the blonde, who seemed to be paralysed with rage, Sasuke took a couple of seconds to ponder, before he raised his voice in a calm tone: "I don't care – just let off some steam…" He muttered, but as he saw the sly grin spreading on Suigetsu's face, he rethought his choice of words. "But don't touch any of the leave-people."

"Not even that old one?" The Houzuki frowned and received a decisive nod in response.

"But Sasuke – this is our chance to flee – we need to-" Karin started, but Sasuke had already rushed to the side, to lead the Akatsuki away from their small group, as he commenced his first attack, right after ordering Tobi to keep an eye on the Jinchuuriki. They heard a couple of explosions, ever farther away form where they were standing and the masked Akatsuki stood a little indecisively around and was entirely ignored by everyone.

"Phew…" Suigetsu stretched his arms over his head, before he dropped them again in a sweeping movement. "Guess I'll go look for some swords, for the moment… I can't believe they took my Decapitator…"

"You wanna steal something?!" Naruto shot to his feet and stared with an indignant expression at the nuke-nin, receiving only a wry look in return.

"Seriously – can't you think of anything but your stupid swords, shark-boy?!" Karin ranted, but kept her eyes fixed on Sasuke's fight, which hadn't really made any progress yet…

"And can't you think of anyone else, but your Sas—" He didn't get to finish his verbal counter attack, as Karin's fist collided with his face, as it so often did, whenever he said something, she didn't want to hear.

"Shut up, you… stupid…" She started but drifted off, as she saw a huge crane soar through the air right above their heads and couldn't help but to suck in the air sharply in shock.

"Where have you been?" Sayuri asked her team-mate, once he had detached his eyes from that flying beast again.

"Huh…? Oh – you won't believe that! They locked us away in that mountain!" Naruto exclaimed sourly and focussed his gaze on the gleaming green light, which was enveloping Sayuri's leg, as she was healing her wound.

"But why you?" She enquired with a puzzled expression and noticed how the blonde's features turned hard all of a sudden.

"Where did that Akatsuki come from?" Naruto changed the topic and now finally looked at the masked nuke-nin, who was supposed to keep watch on him.

"I don't know, they were just there…" She muttered, but then noticed Karin's angry glare which was clearly fixed on her and not Suigetsu this time. Once their eyes met, the red-head snorted briefly, but then turned around and groped for Suigetsu's upper arm.

"Let's go…" She hissed and pulled her team-mate with her, while Juugo stood next to Sayuri and switched his gaze from her, to Tobi and then to where Sasuke was fighting only to repeat that ever same cycle all over again, once he was through.

"You're better now?" Juugo asked, once the violet-haired girl had finished her treatment and received a nod in return, before she struggled to her feet and shot an anxious look at Naruto, who had focused his attention on the rather timid and helpless looking Tobi. However Naruto wouldn't let himself be fooled by that man's appearance, after all he was with Akatsuki and there had to be a damn good reason for that…

"Uh-oh…" Tobi gasped, as he perceived that the blonde had taken on a fighting stance and was clearly glowering at him. After moving his head rapidly from one side to the next, in search of an escape route, the Akatsuki emitted a high-pitched squeal and ran into the direction where his partner was fighting against Sasuke.

"Wait!" Naruto barked and ran right after him, leaving Sayuri and Juugo behind. Now Sayuri was engaged in an inner turmoil as to whether she should go after him, or rather them, or not. She would really like to see their fights and make sure they were okay - after all they weren't fighting against some random people but against Akatsuki, but then both Naruto and Sasuke could definitely look after themselves and she would probably just be in their way… There were other people who needed her help far more badly and it was her duty to help them… but what if something happened to the two of them after all…?

She stared into the direction in which they were fighting and twitched, as the earth started shaking, the source of that quaver definitely coming from there. Now she was even less certain of what to do and Juugo seemed rather alarmed, too, but then they heard some screams, coming from the other direction and faced towards it.

After exchanging some meaningful glances, the two of them rushed towards the centre of the noise, which wasn't too far away, apparently coming from the academy. About a minute later they were confirmed in their assumption. The academy was besieged by numerous enemy troops and the only ones defending it were some students and teachers from within the beleaguered building and it didn't seem as if they were able to do anything, other than keeping the enemy from entering for the time being, a counter attack was absolutely out of the question… There must have been some ninja from Yukigakure among them, as one wing of the academy was entirely covered with ice – an almost welcome change to all the fire… but except for that, the huge building hadn't suffered too badly from the attacks…

"We need to help them…" Sayuri murmured in a subdued voice, while she peeked around the wall-remnants, they were both hiding behind.

"Hmm…" The orange-haired man nodded and wore a pensive expression on his face, when he saw, how one of the rogue-nins threw a chain-sickle into one of the open windows on the second floor and pulled a young Genin out of it. In the blink of an eye, Juugo had left their hideout behind and ran forwards, while dark grey symbols started spreading on the visible parts of his skin and the same weird excrescences from back then grew out of his arms again.

A second before the young boy would have hit the ground, Juugo had caught him in one of his appendages, while he used the other one, which had taken on an axe-like shape, to brush away some of the ninja, who stood right in front of the academy.

"What is this?" Some appalled screams arose; the sight of Juugo seemed to have a rather intimidating effect on the rogue-nins and they started backing away from him right away. The auburn-haired man set the Genin down to the ground again and watched how he ran off, looking equally scared as the others.

A slightly afflicted expression rose on Juugo's face, before his features became hard again and he stared at the people surrounding him, the closest of which were only just struggling to their feet, after having been dashed to the ground by him.

Now Sayuri came forth as well and positioned herself right next to the nuke-nin, her face turned into the opposite direction, to watch their opponents on the other side and make sure they wouldn't get them from behind. She counted twenty men on their right and just five on their left side. Depending on how skilled they were, this could turn into a really tough fight…

"Okay… we should split up, you-" Sayuri started but was interrupted by Juugo, who shot her a brief glance over his shoulder.

"You won't fight." He stated in a decisive tone and caused a puzzled frown to appear on Sayuri's face.

"But you…" The violet-haired girl tried it again, but he cut her off once more.

"No. I'll clear the way and you go in and take care of the wounded. I can handle these guys by myself." Juugo explained and ran towards one of the guys who was in the process of forming a couple of seals, hitting him even before he was able to finish them.

Now the other ones had found some new courage too, or maybe it was desperation which incited them, anyway they now started attacking the member of team hebi and just as he had predicted he didn't seem to have too much trouble with them.

"Go!" He hurried her again and now Sayuri finally did as she was told. She ran towards the entrance of the academy, when she saw someone come at her from the left, but before she had even drawn a kunai, the man fell to the ground. She turned her head back to the front, into the direction were the shuriken, which had hit the man, had come from and spotted Konohamaru in one of the windows – the apparent thrower of the weapon…

A light smile appeared on Sayuri's face and she finally reached the door and came to a halt once she was in the deserted entrance hall. Her pupils darted from side to side, over the numerous pillars which supported the upper floors, up the staircase, to the balustrade upstairs, when she saw someone on the first floor, who walked with hasty steps to the head of the stairs and came to a stop there.

"Sayuri! Come on follow me!"

It was Iruka and he rushed off again as quickly as he had come and Sayuri followed him at once. After walking through the long corridor on the first floor, they went into a room on the right side and found numerous Genin and also a couple of teachers assembled in there.

"Over here!" Iruka had walked to the other end of the longish room and was beckoning Sayuri to come over. The numerous churned up students cleared the way and now Sayuri saw a couple of tables that had been pushed together, on which three people were lying.

"We already did some first aid, but they need some serious treatment." The brown-haired man explained and Sayuri started examining the wounded at once, glad that it were only so few…

…

…

Meanwhile Sasuke was still engaged in a fierce and up to now level match with Deidara that had demanded quite a lot of both of them and of their surroundings as well, while Naruto wasn't busy with fighting Tobi, as you should think, but had declared the crane to be his opponent, after the Akatsuki had escaped him.

It had been a rather coincidental thing; right after he had lost sight of Tobi that beast had appeared in his visual field and he'd been told that they've had a lot of trouble with it – ergo this was the perfect opponent for him to put his abilities to the test. Problem was though that he just wasn't able to hit it. No matter what he did it always came back at him, as if it was surrounded by some kind of shield…

That didn't keep him from trying though…

The crane had landed on the ground now, not far away from the blonde and it had ruffled its weird, sleek feathers like an angry cock but was moving its head like an aggressive snake: first only from side to side, but whenever he approached it, it shot its head to the front and tried to bite him with its long beak, which was riddled with sharp pointed teeth, as Naruto had experienced first hand – the long deep wound on his arm was the best proof of that…

He had tried to attack it with some kunai, he had manipulated with his wind-natured chakra, but once they hit that beast, they just bounced back, without seeming to have harmed it in anyway and in the end he had nearly been taken out by his own weapons…

At least now he knew from a reliable source that conventional attacks didn't work, but luckily he had a wide range of jutsu and there should at least be one among those that should prove to be effective… hopefully…

A huge crowd had formed around the summon, mainly consisting of numerous Naruto-copies, who tried to keep everyone away from the place of action and hinder his opponent from getting away, even though there wasn't really much he could do if it took wing… But then there were also some hooded ANBU - around six of them, flanking his every side. They were a good distance away, though and yet close enough to point out their presence and they didn't do anything helpful, like fighting against the enemies for example… He was sure he had seen some where Sasuke was fighting as well, as if they still kept a watch on them, to make sure they wouldn't run off – whereas helping out and doing the dirty work for them, seemed to be okay with them.

While side-glancing at them, Naruto gnawed his teeth with rising anger about their passivity, before he turned his gaze back at his opponent and didn't look any less furious…

After some ordering words, a small group of Narutos formed before the bird and threw two of them into the air. However before they could even do anything, they were caught within the beast's beak and vanished with a '_plop'_ and a cloud of smoke.

It had just been a diversion though, the real attack was carried out by two further Narutos, who had now appeared right above the head of the crane, a bluish gleaming energy ball in the middle of them.

"Oodama Rasengan!" They both yelled and thrust the spiralling chakra-sphere against the back of the crane's skull. Due to the force of their attack, the beast's head was shoved downwards and crashed with a loud bang against the ground and caused numerous boulders to fly into the air. Despite this first success, his Rasengan still didn't get through to it and recoiled from its feathers, only to hit the two Narutos in return and caused them to vanish into thin air again.

Good for Naruto, that he had only let his shadow clones perform this attack, otherwise he would probably be dead by now…

Now the beast looked really angry, it had again puffed up its feathers and was now flapping its wings wildly in an intimidating manner. Its head shot forwards again, going for everything of a yellow and orange colour and therewith reduced the size of Naruto's clones drastically in just a couple of seconds.

Baring his teeth, the blonde shot a frantic look at the beast, pondering about what to do next, when he heard an explosion and then also felt the force of it, which caused him to crouch down so that he wouldn't be blown off by the compressed air, which shot into his direction. When he lowered the hand he had held in front of his face to shield it from the dust and stone-fragments, Naruto could see that Sasuke and Deidara were now much closer to them and still moved this way.

Deidara was still or again standing on his dragon, which shot football-sized explosives out of its tail, Sasuke was trying to evade by running off. Once the Uchiha caught sight of Naruto and his opponent though, he abandoned his strategy and jumped into the air, doing a half back flip until he faced Deidara again, even though upside down, before he let a chidori run through his left hand and formed a blade with it, which he used to cut through the explosives; his raiton-chakra keeping them from going off.

Now the two groups were only separated by roughly 20 metres and this seemed to be the best place they could have chosen for their battles, because everything was already entirely destroyed anyway, so there was nothing they could possibly damage in the heat of the moment… At the beginning at least… It didn't take long until the other leave-ninja discovered the sad advantages of this area as well and therefore led their opponents, who have been drastically reduced in number by now, to this place, too. Hence, as more and more people appeared here and not only to fight but also to watch the battles, it was over with fighting, without having to be considerate of someone else…

Suigetsu and Karin had reappeared now too, the Houzuki mounted with just about as many swords as he could possibly carry and a broad smile on his face, whereas Karin looked rather vexed and tried to ignore him, by fully concentrating on Sasuke's battle. It wasn't going too well, admittedly, which wasn't even surprising after they had been locked away like some mangy dogs, in these tiny cells with barely anything to eat or drink for almost an entire week, but it wasn't going too bad either – the two of them were just about equally exhausted and not to forget wounded… but maybe Deidara had the advantage of being able to fly into the air - out of his opponent's reach, whenever he needed a break and could still attack from there, whereas Sasuke couldn't do so anymore… since the jûin was gone, his abilities had definitely suffered to some extend…

Deidara had flown upwards again, and now Sasuke, who stood right underneath him, took a deep breath, filling his lungs with as much oxygen as they could possibly take, before he exhaled and blew a huge fireball into the direction of the Akatsuki.

At the same time however, Deidara had prepared another load of explosives he shot down at the Uchiha, so those and Sasuke's fireball collided in mid-air and caused a huge explosion, whose force stroke both participants of this fight and even affected the people standing around, only to a much lesser extent…

Despite the injuries he had only just sustained and that only added to the really grave ones he already had, Deidara heaved a relieved sigh, because this explosion could have easily caused his C2-dragon to go off as well and then things would have gotten pretty nasty for him – blessing in disguise…

Once the smoke had faded a bit, he focussed his eyes on his opponent on the ground again, noticing with apparent delight that he had gotten his share of the explosion as well and looked rather worn out, as he knelt there on the ground, entirely covered with dirt and blood and yet he still didn't look afraid or at least worried that he might not win this fight…

He had his crimson eyes fixed on him and simply stared at him, as if nothing had happened… Like so often Deidara felt how his blood started boiling and he had long forgotten about the reason why he was actually here. He noticed that the Uchiha side-glanced to the left briefly and something in his countenance changed… with any other opponent this would have probably been insignificant, but as this was no one else but one of the damn unimpressible Uchihas, there had to be some meaning to it, so he let his eyes wander into the direction Sasuke had glanced at and saw, the girl he had attacked earlier on, together with that huge man, who was apparently travelling with the Uchiha.

They must have only just turned up and were now talking to the others of his team, - nothing special… It had to be that girl… Right after she had turned up, as he'd been fighting the Kyuubi, Sasuke had come to help her and earlier, as he had wanted to kill her, he had saved her too… So much to the cold unemotional Uchiha – now he had his weak-spot!

The tail of his dragon shot forth again and the end of it turned inside out, before a couple of round, white clay bombs were pushed out of it and flew straight towards the Uchiha, but instead of aiming at him directly, he tried to direct them farther to the left, between him and the group of people, so he would dodge to the right… and that was exactly what he did, he behaved just as Deidara had predicted him to do and now he steered his dragon downwards, going right for the crowd of people.

Roaring with laughter, the Akatsuki gripped into his claybag and threw a handful of his explosives, right to where that girl and the rest of his team were standing, before he cocked his head around, to savour with a sardonic grin on his lips, how the Uchiha finally abandoned his clinical demeanour and stared with wide eyes at the explosives, which had almost reached them by now.

Deidara perceived how he concentrated his lightning-element chakra into his hand, so before he could use it to defuse his bombs, he caused them to explode even before they had reached them, but still close enough to affect them.

Again, the blonde burst out laughing as he watched a cloud of smoke rise into the air right at the point were Sasuke's team had been standing, while the people around started backing away. He turned his gaze to the Uchiha again, who didn't seem to pay any attention to him, but stared with an indefinable look on his face to the left, until his features softened a bit, at least for a second, before he glowered with narrowed eyes and a really furious expression at the blonde.

"What…?!" A startled look flitted over the Akatsuki's face, before he turned his head to the side and watched how that tall guy lowered his suddenly much bigger and grossly misshapen arms, behind which a group of coughing, but apparently unharmed people came to light, before he sunk to the ground and his arms took on their usual shape again.

Karin and Sayuri crouched down to Juugo and checked on him, while Suigetsu had a rather annoyed and even impatient look on his face and shifted his violet eyes from Sasuke to Deidara and then to Naruto, who was still engaged in an arduous, but up to now rather fruitless fight with that summon.

Deidara detached his eyes from them and turned with a rather horrified expression at the Uchiha again and suddenly wished his blank face back… With a fierce expression in his gleaming red eyes, Sasuke took a couple of steps into Deidara's direction before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath in. A second later he opened his left eye and the first thing Deidara noticed was that it had changed. It wasn't all red anymore, but black with a red star in the middle. Fear started sweeping over the Akatsuki and he couldn't think about anything else but escape, especially when he saw the black flames which seized his dragon's head and were moving into his direction.

After he had overcome his short lived paralysis, Deidara moved with wide eyes backwards and then jumped off the back of his C2-Karura, but once he had, the black flames of Sasuke's Amaterasu got hold of him, too and set his clothes on fire. With a frantic scream, Deidara plunged downwards, but before he hit the ground, his dragon exploded with an ear-splitting noise and everything that was left of it and its owner was a spot of black-burning earth.

Panting heavily, Sasuke clutched his hands to his eye and a runlet of blood started leaking out between his fingers. He sunk to his knees and when he removed his hands from his face again, his bloody eyes were entirely black again and first looked into the direction of his team, before they shifted to Naruto's battle.

The blonde hadn't missed that Sasuke had won his fight and the outcome of it had given him a new idea, even though it was undeniably a risky one… Mobilizing his last chakra, which was probably as much as others had on a good day, Naruto again created numerous shadow clones and had them all run at the crane simultaneously. Because of their great number the beast, soon gave up on trying to get them with its beak and started retreating backwards, especially as some of the clones aimed the bluish energy spheres they had created at it.

Instead of stumbling farther back, the crane soon took wing and flew up into the air, making things significantly harder for the blonde, but at least it was still flying into the direction he had meant it to do.

Some of his clones had managed to jump onto the bird's back, while the others ran after it, preparing themselves to strike once the time was right. The crane tried its best to shake the stowaways from its back, but by concentrating chakra into their feet and hands they managed to stay where they were, until they were roughly above the place where Sasuke had fought Deidara.

They let go of its feathers and stood rather shakily on its back. A second later a bluish light surrounded the upper side of the crane as Naruto's clones performed numerous Rasengan which they simultaneously thrust against the crane's back, before they were hauled back at them again and they vanished with a puff of smoke.

With a pained screech, the bird was pressed downwards, but tried to catch itself before reaching the ground. However the second it was far enough down, the remaining Narutos were in the air above it and now nearly a hundred great blue energy balls crashed against the crane and it was pushed forwards before they bounced back and hit their creators. It hadn't been enough yet, so Naruto again performed his multi shadow clone jutsu and they repeated the same cycle all over again and this time successful. The crane was shoved into the black flames of Sasuke's Amaterasu and now Naruto could only cross his fingers and hoped it would work out – otherwise they'd probably all die in just a couple of seconds…

He knew from Jiraiya that Amaterasu's black flames were inextinguishable and that they could burn anything – even the oesophagus of the fire breathing mountain toad, which must be something really special… He only hoped that it would also burn through the shield that was surrounding the crane – if it should bounce off it, too, he had only just sealed Konoha's fate.

And it worked. Once the summon came in contact with the black flames, they at once started to ignite all its feathers, but the crane still moved and flew upwards, until it looked like a huge black sun. It didn't stay up long though, it had only covered a couple of metres, when it perished and hence fell to the ground again, into a piece of halfway destroyed wood, which caught fire at once, but at least didn't do any more damage than there already was…

It was over. With all the summons gone, the few remaining enemies didn't stand a chance against the large muster of Konoha-nins. Most of them were gathered in the western part of Konoha, around the Hokage monument, which is were most of the fights had taken place, whereas the eastern part of Konoha was almost completely unaffected. Now that the crane, the last summon and probably most dangerous weapon they've had was dead, it was over for them and now wild cheering broke out and replaced the desperate screams which had beforehand, filled Konoha's streets.

It didn't seem right though… the village was burning, there were corpses everywhere and those who weren't dead were at least injured and at times even pretty gravely… it didn't seem right that they were happy, but it was most likely only a temporary state… this first feeling of victory and relief was far too ephemeral and would soon be replaced by the realization of what had happened… of what they had lost…

With a worn-out but still content expression on his face, Naruto stared at the celebrating people in front and around him, feeling too tired to join in on their cheering though.

Many people passed him and patted his shoulder or gave him a thumbs-up, but he barely noticed them. His eyes were fixed on the tiny group around Sasuke, who stood farther off from the others and were entirely ignored or even avoided by them, even though they had likewise contributed to saving Konoha…

The blonde dragged himself forward and shuffled into their direction, feeling almost too fatigue to even lift his feet, but he somehow managed to cover the distance to them. Sasuke looked even worse off than he did, but he was already being treated by Sayuri, who looked up at once, as he reached them.

"You did it." She grinned at him and received a proud beam in return.

"Sure." Naruto smiled, before he slumped to the ground right in front of Sasuke, who looked up at him then and cast an inscrutable gaze at him.

"This time he's dead for sure, right?" The blonde smirked and focussed his gaze on the sea of black flames next to them.

"Hn." Sasuke nodded, before he looked to the side, as Sayuri sighed and finished her treatment.

"Hmpf." Karin snorted scornfully about Sayuri's rather bad job and watched with an annoyed frown how the violet-haired girl pinched the bridge of her nose and pressed her eyes firmly shut.

"Let me see…" She muttered in a low voice, once she had opened her eyes again and bent to the side to where Naruto was sitting.

"Never mind… it's nothing…" He tried to put her off, seeing that she was exhausted anyway, but she just rolled her eyes and enclosed her greenish glowing hands around the deep cut on his upper arm, which then started to close slowly.

An intent expression appeared on Sayuri's face, as the light beneath her hands started to fade until it had disappeared entirely.

"I don't have any more chakra left… I'm sorry…" She lowered her head and took some deep breaths, but as she looked at the Uzumaki, she noticed the concentrated and fierce look in his eyes that were resting at some point to the left. A startled expression flitted over Sayuri's face, as she noticed that the others looked equally fierce and stern and as she trailed the direction of their gazes, she knew what was going on…

They were surrounded by numerous ANBU, who had formed a tight circle around them and took away their sight of anything else.

"What…?" She murmured with wide eyes, when Naruto jumped to his feet and planted himself in front of their group.

"You again… What the hell do you want?!" He barked indignantly and glowered at the masked men around them, who didn't answer him though, just like their guards hadn't, too - apparently you had to have your vocal cords severed in case you wanted to join up with them…

"Uchiha Sasuke, Houzuki Suigetsu, Juugo, Karin…" They perceived a somewhat familiar, craggy voice and as they looked into the direction it had come from, they saw that two of the ANBU had stepped aside and through the consequent crack in the circle came an elderly man, with bandages covering most parts of his body and face: Danzô.

"…You're under arrest. Considering your attempted escape, there won't be any need to take up your case again. Follow me voluntarily or do so by force, the choice is yours…" The head of _root_ stated matter-of-factly, before he turned around and was just about to walk off again, when Naruto held him back.

"Wait! You're wrong!" The Uzumaki screamed and closed up to Danzô, but before he had even reached him, the two ANBU closest to him blocked his path. Danzô however had come to a halt and shot an expressionless side-glance over his shoulder, before he turned around fully and motioned the two men in front of him to step aside.

"Uzumaki Naruto, you are in no position to speak here. Your escape from the preventive detention you have been put in for your own sake will have serious consequences as well - that is what you should focus on…" The (unofficial) council member stared at him through narrowed eyes, but the blonde wasn't in the least intimidated by the prospect of detention, or whatever else it was…

"They didn't try to flee - without them we could never have won!" The Uzumaki carried on as if he hadn't been interrupted and stated the facts, even though he exaggerated a bit…

"They helped more than some others did." His eyes roamed accusingly over the masked men around them, who had done nothing but watching their fights. "You can't just lock them away again. That's absolutely unfair!"

"Just because you have a special position with Tsunade, doesn't mean you can have your way all the time…" Danzô's voice was utterly callous, but what little of his features was visible remained entirely blank, which didn't really fit to that…

"But he is right!" Sayuri now got up as well, not least because she had heard Suigetsu grumble angrily, so before he could do anything that would make things even worse for them, she cut him off in advance.

Danzô's gaze now travelled to her and his small, not bandaged eye, bored into Sayuri's determined blue ones. "Your case isn't even closed yet – if our suspicions prove to be well-founded, you can join up with them right away."

Sayuri's eyes widened slightly after his words and some questioning glances turned into her direction, as no one but Naruto knew about the outcome of her interrogation and she herself hadn't thought that they still considered their wild allegations to be true…

"Just what in the world is wrong with you?!" Naruto barked in a considerable volume, his opposite's narrow-minded attitude causing him to lose his temper entirely…

"You damn old gee- HEY!" He protested as one of the ANBU had gripped for his arms, to keep him from insulting his master.

"Now as I said you are arrested. All of you, so-"

"What is going on here?" Danzô was interrupted by a female voice, which had come from behind him and now he really looked furious for the first time.

The ANBU next to him again stepped to the side a bit and now the group of people in their midst could see that there was quite a concourse around them; numerous people were surrounding their little group, all of them staring into their direction, until a blonde woman stepped through their midst and came to a halt next to the elder.

"Explain." Tsunade shot a demanding look first at Naruto, then at Sayuri and the blonde didn't need to be told twice to state, or rather complain about what has happened.

"That old mummy –"

"Naruto!" Tsunade barked, putting Naruto in his place. After all he was still talking about a high-ranked member of Konoha's politics, who on top of everything happened to stand right in front of him, so she wouldn't tolerate his language by any means.

"Fine… _Danzô_ arrested them, even though they helped saving the village! Sasuke killed Deidara and without him I could have never beaten that crane! This is absolutely unfair – and now he wants to arrest me and Sayuri as well." Naruto finished and watched a frown appear on Tsunade's forehead.

"That's it?" She asked eventually in a sceptical tone, after having cast a brief, but rather angry side-glance at Danzô and now she found herself opposed by some confused and aghast faces.

"It seems you haven't been aware, that Danzô-_sama_, only spoke about remanding you in custody, as everything else would exceed the power his position within this village contains, since, as you without a doubt know, decisions of this rank can only be made by the Hokage and no one else." She narrowed her eyes insidiously, and watched the resentful expression on Danzô's face.

She knew exactly that this wasn't what he had meant, but she wouldn't let him take the reins again, just as he had done at the decision-making – the mere thought of that and especially of what he had done to Naruto caused her blood to boil again, but she tried her best not to show it.

"You are right… It might not be in _my_ power alone to arrest them, but in the power of the Hokage in collaboration with the council, as you've forgotten to mention…And if you take a look behind you, you will see why there is only one way to decide about this…" Danzô stated and nodded towards the black flames of Sasuke's Amaterasu, which were still burning and wouldn't extinguish within the next seven days, before he shot Tsunade an imperious glance and carried on in a low voice that was clearly meant for no one but the blonde woman to hear: "_He has awoken his Mangekyou-Sharingan, he is too dangerous to be kept alive – bear that in mind when you make your decision…and remember whom you owe your loyalty to… it would be fatal for someone in your position to get in trouble with the wrong people, so be wise in deciding whose side you are on…" _

Tsunade's eyes widened slightly and her face was entirely blank - she couldn't believe how he could seriously have the audacity to talk to her like that… Her hands started shaking, so she clenched them tightly and bit into her lower lip, to keep herself from screaming at the elder, in front of all these people who were watching them, which was probably exactly what he wanted – something to doubt her accountability, or best deprive her of her authority…

After scrutinizing the blonde with a disparaging look, Danzô detached his eyes from her and his face suddenly looked much brighter than just a few seconds ago – even though he still looked grim…

"Lead them off… into '_custody' _for the time being…" Danzô ordered his men, who went for the six people in their midst at once, entirely unimpressed by their protests, before he turned around, ready to walk off, however he was again kept from doing so as Tsunade raised her voice, which was noticeably shaking with anger.

"Let go of them right now." She said in a dangerously calm voice and shot the ANBU some killer looks, which must have made their blood run cold… Instead of obeying her orders however, they first looked at their leader, who nodded latently even though he seemed rather reluctant to do so, before they did as they were told by no other than the head of their village.

Still looking fairly upset, Tsunade walked towards Danzô, but peered past him, at the crowds of people surrounding them and raised her voice in a loud and clear tone: "There is no need to arrest them - considering how much these people have done for Konoha-Gakure and as they have against all beliefs never done anything to cause harm to the village, I as the Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves hereby give them the permission to stay in the village!"

Right after these words she gazed through narrowed eyes at the elder, who looked as if he'd been slapped in the face, feeling far more satisfaction at this sight than she ought to…

The villagers reacted less shocked to the news than you would have thought, in fact they were even celebrating, or just carried on celebrating - it was hard to tell. If it hadn't been for the fact that they had only just beaten their enemies and had therewith averted the oncoming calamity, they would have probably thought differently about all this, but right now they seemed to be aware of the fact that Sasuke and his team had fought on their side and had helped them to a considerable extent, so all of this must have propitiated them to some extend – or they were just too taken in by their own celebrating that they hadn't really heard what Tsunade had just told them, or were too exhausted or in too high spirits to realize what it meant…

"Spite…" Danzô breathed, while glaring at the blonde, with so much hatred in his eyes that it caused Tsunade to shudder. "You trifle with the future of the entire Leave Village out of sheer spite… and someone like that is Hokage… you'll regret having done this…" He finished his whispered sermon and now finally walked away under Tsunade's watchful eyes, directly followed by his troops.

Once he was gone, Tsunade closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, knowing that every word he had said was true – in fact she already regretted her frivolous and impulsive decision… Behind her back she could hear Naruto start cheering and laughing and a weird feeling ran through her… Reluctantly she turned around and faced the nuke-nins she had only just appointed to be legal citizen of the Hidden Leave Village and couldn't help but to shake her head and sigh again.

"I can't believe I really did that…" She ran a hand through her long blonde hair and scrutinized the people in front of her with a wary look in her honey-brown eyes.

"What are you talking about – this was so the right thing to do!" Naruto beamed at her, however he seemed to be the only person in their small group to do so, while the others looked rather sceptical and wary…

"Before you say anything, listen to me. You have two choices now, you can either stay here, or leave, it's just that simple, however in case you should opt for the second option, make sure to never set foot in the Leave Village again." She shot an intent glance at the four people standing in front of her, who looked at her with blank faces, as if they didn't realize or wouldn't appreciate what she had just done for them.

She closed her eyes again, while massaging her sleeves, before she took a deep breath and carried on: "Just don't make me regret my decision - this is the only chance you get, in your case even the second '_only'_ chance'" She nodded at the Uchiha and then carried on, still looking as if she was waiting for someone to wake her up and tell her it had only been a dream…

"In case you want to stay here, your accommodation will be in Sasuke's hands; as an owner of an entire district he should find some room for you…" She said, but missed the enthralled sparkle that lighted up Karin's red eyes at that point, as two very specific sentence fragments ran through her head:

'_your accommodation will be in Sasuke's hands'_

'_entire district'_

However no one but her seemed to be impressed by these words, but they still kept quiet and listened to what the Hokage had to say: "… and you should be aware that it will be expected of you to prove yourselves useful to the village… And Juugo, during the interrogations I've heard a lot about your '_problem_ _'_and I would lie if I said it wouldn't fascinate me… With the means we have available here, we might be able to find a remedy for you, so if you accept I would like to take care of your case personally and help you solve your problem, even though I can't guarantee any success…"

Juugo's head turned up at once and he stared with a perplexed expression on his face at the Hokage of Konoha-Gakure, not believing what he had only just heard… Something had to be wrong about all this… it sounded just too good to be true…

"How will you decide?" The blonde woman asked and shot a demanding look at the people in front of her, before it drifted to Naruto, who still looked happy, even though a trace of anxiety had invaded his face, by now.

After a small gesture of understanding the four members of team hebi formed a small circle and therewith excluded the rest of them, to discuss their decision, while numerous pairs of curious, anxious and not to forget hopeful eyes rested on them, waiting for them to make up their minds…

…

…


	51. Difficulties

**51. Difficulties**

When was it that life had started getting difficult and where had all the easy times gone? Like seriously – how come everything seemed to be nothing but a variation of different kinds of difficult? And how come that the really grave and serious things seemed far less important than those which were minor in comparison – literal trifles?

You should think that after what had only just happened, the village would be Sayuri's greatest concern, but then why was she just lying around here instead of being out there and helping out?

After that last attack, Konoha was in an abysmal condition. The entire western part was destroyed, while the rest of the village had at least indirectly suffered from the attacks as well and there were more casualties than the hospital could possibly accommodate or the limited number of doctors and nurses could take care of.

There were so many different ways in which you could make yourself useful and yet Sayuri just lay in her bed and stared into the drab grey sky, while her thoughts circled around one single topic: about how she hadn't seen Sasuke since the day of the attack, which was now three days ago…

She was still overcome by an uneasy feeling whenever she thought about what had happened, right after Tsunade had officially allowed them to stay… She had left the decision to them – forcing them to stay would have been pointless and in no one's interest…

They had gathered in a small group, so they could talk in privacy, but Sayuri had been close enough to them to hear every word of what they had said and had even seen their mimic and gesture (except for Juugo's though because he's had his back turned on her)… and she had gone through the entire conversation numerous times in her head - she had listened to them so intently that she actually memorized it word for word:

…

"Well… now what?" Suigetsu had asked while he had scratched his head sheepishly, as if he didn't know what to make of this entire situation, before he had focused his violet eyes on Sasuke, whose gaze had rested on Juugo though at that moment, but then he had let his eyes roam from one of them to the next and had eventually raised his voice: "I'll leave it to you… Karin, I don't know about your aims and I can't think of anything Konoha could offer you other than a fixed abode and the possibility to improve your medical skills, so what will you do?"

He had gazed at the red-haired woman, who had been the first in the line and had frowned lightly about the so obvious faraway expression on her face. Karin seemed to have been entirely absorbed in her thoughts, though and after a couple of seconds, a vivid flush had appeared on her cheeks, as if she had already pictured living with Sasuke, or something of that sort…

"I guess that means she wants to stay…" Suigetsu had rolled his eyes, once he had noticed the rather conspicuous colour on his team-mate's cheeks. However his statement must have ripped her out of her reverie and she had shaken her head vehemently, before she had adjusted her dark-rimmed glasses.

"Who said that?! I don't know yet – give me some time to think – and stop staring at me fish-head!" She had groused and turned her head demonstratively away from the Houzuki, most likely to hide the blush on her face, which had made it only better visible for Sayuri, though.

"Hn." Sasuke had nodded and then turned his coal black eyes to the next person in the line. "Juugo."

"…If there is even the slightest chance that they can help me, then I'll try it. I want to stay here…" He had stated in a calm voice and again Sasuke had only commented with a nod to his statement and had then turned to the next.

"Suigetsu, your aim is to fight Kisame, but as it is you won't be able to beat him. If you'd stay here, you could use the time training – so can you spare the time, or is it your wish to go for the Akatsuki right away?"

"Tze… as if it mattered – I'm clearly outvoted…" He had raised an eyebrow and side-glanced at Karin who had looked ready to protest and remind him again that she hadn't made up her mind, yet, but before she had even been able to say anything, he had raised his voice again: "Ah… I know that you want to stay here, too, so fine – I just have one condition-"

He had narrowed his eyes cunningly with a sly grin on his face, which had caused a rather sceptical look to appear on Sasuke's face. "As you said, at the moment I'm not strong enough to beat Kisame – therefore you'll personally take care that that changes."

There had been a sharp edge to his voice and his eyes had held this for him so typical devious look in them, but Sasuke's face had remained entirely blank while he had apparently pondered about his words, until he had nodded subtly and turned back to Karin.

"That makes it final – can you live with staying here Karin?"

"Err… damn… your house better be big!" She had snorted and crossed her arms in front of her chest, but in spite of the sour look on her face it had seemed as if she had been struggling to keep a telltale grin from taking form on her lips.

"Then it's settled…" Sasuke had muttered before he had turned around and had first looked into her and then into Naruto's face, as they must have both looked very tense, before he had turned his attention to the Hokage. "We will accept your offer and stay here."

"Haha!" Naruto, who apparently hadn't been able to eavesdrop on them, had started laughing in relief and had grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Then welcome back!" He had roared really loudly, while he had given Sasuke a nudge against his upper arm, before he had wrapped an arm around his shoulder, entirely missing the disgruntled look the Uchiha had shot him. "Damn – I always knew it would end up like this!"

"Hn." Sasuke had closed his eyes briefly, while he had taken Naruto's arm away and had stepped a good foot away from the blonde. Naruto hadn't seemed to mind though; he had just crossed his arms behind his head and had kept smiling to himself, while Sasuke's eyes had then travelled to hers, and as soon as she had noticed that a relieved smile had formed on her lips.

"Naruto, Sayuri – you better go to the hospital… Sasuke, Juugo, Karin and Suigetsu, you come with me first, there are still quite some things to talk about…" Tsunade had stated and after receiving some assenting nods, she had turned around and led the four ex-nuke-nins past the masses of curious bystanders towards the Hokage-tower, while she and Naruto had marched with bright faces and without protesting into the direction of the hospital, but only because they had been sure then that they'd join them there later anyway and then they would have enough time to talk about all this and celebrate their reunion.

…

That was basically it. Right after they had agreed to stay, Tsunade had sent her and Naruto to the hospital, where they had first gotten treated themselves, before they had helped out wherever they could, all the time waiting for the group of ex-nuke-nins to finally show up.

They had been disappointed though, after two or three hours Tsunade had come along and when they had asked her where they were, she had told them, that she had already treated them and sent them to the Uchiha-district, out of fear that their presence in the hospital, where people hadn't yet been told that they were allowed to stay here now, might cause some trouble and fear among the patients…

They had seen her point… in most people's eyes they were still highly dangerous nuke-nins and Sayuri was afraid that that wouldn't change too soon… There hadn't been any time to complain for them anyway, there was just so much to do – while Sayuri had taken care of healing the patients Naruto had made sure that she wouldn't have a second of breathing time, by providing her with ever more injured people, but it wasn't as if the other medic-nin wouldn't have had their hands full, too…

When she had finally been done, it had already been close to midnight and her way home had been marked by an uneasy feeling, as she hadn't known what she would find there… Luckily her house was at the very other end of Konoha, so it had at least been out of the range of the direct attacks, but that didn't have to mean anything… With crossed fingers she had turned the last corner and in the darkness her house hadn't looked that much different, from how she remembered it to do, just the scattered shingles on the path she had nearly tripped over had struck her as odd somehow…

Once she had opened the door, it had gotten all the more clear that it hadn't stayed unaffected by what had happened. With a queasy feeling she had stepped over one of her wall-cupboards, which had lain right in the open doorway and had roamed her eyes through the darkness in search for any movement, while her hand had been groping for the light switch, but the light just wouldn't go on… She had called for her dog, but had only heard her own heartbeat and the clinking of the various shards she had stepped over and which seemed to cover the entire floor, but no sign of him, until she had, after quite some time, heard some faint, wheezing breathing sounds.

She had followed them to the overturned couch, which hadn't stood where it usually did, which revealed quite a lot because it was really heavy… Carefully she had peered past it and had seen her shivering dog, which had been cowering underneath it and had apparently been too afraid still to come out even after she had called him. With quite some effort, she had turned the couch around again and had spent the entire night with sitting with her dog in her arms in probably the only shard-free corner of her house, so exhausted that it hadn't even taken her an hour to fall asleep.

The day after that she had been in the hospital again and this time she had taken her dog with her, because she hadn't had the heart to leave him alone again… Having him with her was probably one of the reasons, apart from the huge amount of patients, why she hadn't even bothered to go back into that chaos that was her home, but had worked through the entire night and most of the next day as well, until Tsunade had sent her home. She had been tired alright but she hadn't felt like sleeping then, so she had occupied herself with at least putting up her furniture again and sweeping the shards into one corner, because she had been too lazy to do a thorough cleaning…

Then, this afternoon, she had woken up again, even though she couldn't remember having gone to bed… But now that she was lying here she just couldn't bring herself to getting up again, so she just lay in her bed and stared through the holes in her roof into the grey, but still cloud-free sky and felt really miserable for doing so.

There was just so awfully much she could – no – should do now; she must have slept for more than 15 hours, so she should be rested enough to take up her work again and yet she just kept on lazing about and couldn't think of anything but the fact that she hadn't seen Sasuke in three entire days, even though he was back now…

After she had wished so dearly that he'd return and after she had missed him so badly after just one day of separation… Now he really was back, against all beliefs and yet she just couldn't get herself to go see him… And it's not like she wouldn't want to… she simply couldn't. She had spent most of this day, which wasn't too much yet, as she had only just woken up, with trying to picture herself walking up to his house, but it just wouldn't work… Then she had tried it the other way around and had tried to imagine how he would come up to her, but that was even less realistic… it wouldn't happen. He wouldn't come to her and if she couldn't get past her inhibitions, she probably wouldn't see him any time soon…

With a sigh she closed her eyes and folded her hands over her forehead, when suddenly a darker shadow fell over her closed lids and she cast them open again, startled and hopeful at the same time. However once her eyes were open she was disappointed… just a stupid cloud and a really big one… this was a really bad timing for rain, with all these holes in her roof a simple shower of rain could turn her house into an aquarium and she wasn't exactly the best swimmer…

This was something she could do… she could fix the roof, or start cleaning of all this chaos rather than just shoving it into some corners – anything would be better than just lying around and thinking about different versions of the things she wouldn't do anyway… At least not if she couldn't convince her body to get up any time soon…

She rolled to the side and curled up in foetal position, while her grey-blue eyes wandered over the mess that was supposed to be her home. Maybe it was true that a house represented the inner state of its owner, but if that was the case, than this cast a rather bad light on her momentary state of mind… It was not only this chaos, the destruction and all the broken pieces in here, but also the fact that thanks to her leaky roof, her house had turned into a fridge; she could even see some faint puffs of smoke whenever she exhaled…

It would be easy to fix all this though – fix both. She could just clean up her house and restore order. It shouldn't be much of a problem; she'd just have to put up the remaining turned over things and throw away or repair the broken ones… When it came to herself it was even easier and less exertive – she'd just have to drag herself out of bed and go visit him – but what then?

What if she visited him and the others who were now living with him were there, too and he'd again act as if he wouldn't even know her, which would lead to an awkward silence and just more disappointment. Or worse still, what if his team wasn't even there and he'd still act as if he wouldn't know her… She didn't really know why he should do so, but then why shouldn't he? Or what if she went there and the house was just entirely empty and he had left after all… She hadn't seen him since after his fight, so who told her that he was still there?

She was simply way too much of a coward to just walk up there and face reality, but was lying around here and imagining one worst-case scenario after the next not so much worse than at least having some reassurance? Like seriously, reality couldn't be any worse than her own imagination and after all this time of brooding about these things, she should be prepared for even the worst of all possible situations… But being prepared didn't mean that she was ready to actually be confronted with it…

Either way – one day she'd have to find out and get past her fear – it really didn't matter when, however the earlier it was, the more time it would safe her of drowning in her own thoughts – or the rainwater if it came to that…

Rather unenthusiastically, she crawled out of her bed and lifted a hand to her neck, while a desperate sigh escaped her lips. There was just so much chaos she couldn't even think of where to start cleaning, which means she'd safe that up for later and take care of her frame of mind first.

"You wanna take a walk?" She asked her dog that was sitting on the couch - one of the few things that was relatively okay still – and that one let out a joyful bark and jumped into her direction at once, apparently all too keen on getting out of this hovel, which was rather understandable…

The way to the Uchiha mansion took them closer to the centre of the village, and the farther west they walked the more the level of destruction increased… Most of the rubbish had already been pulled out of the way, so the streets were relatively clear and a lot of scaffolds had been put up in that short amount of time, which was really impressive…

People were buzzing from one building site to the next like busy ants, with these huge wooden beams and other things they were carrying and which seemed to be at least three times their weight… Everyone was helping – there was hardly anyone who just sat around and took a break, or who spent his time lying in bed, as she had done and which made her feel quite bad admittedly. Maybe she should postpone taking care of her own needs and should go back to the hospital and do something for the common good – or she could just stop searching for excuses not to go there and just get it over with and do something beneficial right after that… Once her head was clear again, she would do much better anyway – or not, depending on what would happen…

Mindful not to get into anyone's way, Sayuri made her way farther to the south, where the Uchiha-district was situated and she wondered how much it had been affected by the attacks. She knew that the main-house of the Hyuga-clan had been almost completely destroyed by some of Deidara's bombs and the Hyuga-district wasn't too far away from that of the Uchiha's so maybe it was only a ruin now… Well she'd see soon enough, maybe five more minutes and she'd be there and she could literally feel surges of adrenalin sweep through her entire body and she became just all the more aware of her surroundings and yet she didn't seem to take them in… As if they'd just rush past her, while her steps slowed down the closer she got to her destination.

She turned a corner and already found herself in front of the rather high stone wall with the low bluish-green roof, which surrounded the Uchiha-district and it took her a bit of a time until she reached the entrance region, where you could see a blue cloth with the Uchiha crest on it, spanning over the upper part of it.

She came to a halt in front of it and rested her eyes on the familiar fan for quite some time, before she looked down at her dog that was already wagging his tail, as he recognized the place he had lived in for nearly a month and which must have looked far more welcoming to him than his temporary accommodation…

"We're really doing this right?" She just needed to say something, as if the flow of air would take something of the pressure out of her and as there was no one around, which she actually welcomed, she asked her dog, but only because otherwise that would mean she'd talk to herself…

Fairly reluctant, she took the first slow steps forward and let her eyes wander over the numerous buildings in front of her. The grey sky cast a rather sombre light on everything, but apart from some rather minor damage, the houses seemed to be okay – at least everything was still standing and looked inhabitable, so she should definitely encounter him here… hopefully…

Yet again this thought sent a weird feeling through her and she really had to pull herself together, as she would rather turn around again… Unwilling to let her worries get the best of her, the violet-haired girl marched along the main-street until she caught sight of the biggest building in the entire district. It hadn't lost any of its intimidating character since the last time she had seen it and then it had been empty…

She stopped again, but only for a brief moment, before she covered the last few metres over the empty courtyard, where there was only a kind of lonely seeming overturned flower tub in the middle of it, until she finally found the courage to step to the wooden slide-door and knock at its frame.

She held her breath while waiting for someone to open, but then gasped, as the thought of Karin opening the door for her intruded her mind… She hoped that wouldn't be the case – Karin was about the last person she wanted to see right now…

An uneasy expression flitted over her face and she looked down at her dog, whose dark brown eyes were fixed on the still-closed door as well and he let out an impatient bark as nothing happened.

Why was it taking so long? It was a huge mansion admittedly, but still… maybe he hadn't heard her, even though she doubted that, but if he was in the training hall on the other side, maybe together with the others…

Another sigh parted her lips, as she stood there and waited - and waited and stood there… She could just push the door aside and go in and see for herself, but she felt rather reluctant to just walk into someone else's home, so she knocked for another time and closed her eyes, while she listened for any sound within the huge mansion.

Nothing… no sounds, no one who opened…

She bit into her lower lip and felt more and more anxiety built up in her, so she finally opened the door and took a step into the entrance hall. There were no shoes standing around, so she doubted that there was someone around and yet she walked in and started calling out into the dark, dusty and at times devastated rooms. It didn't look as if anyone was living here, there were just no signs of that – there were shards and dirt just about everywhere and not even the broken picture frames had been picked up from the floor, but that didn't necessarily have to mean anything – however the fact that no one replied to her calls was far more critical…

She could actually feel how the blood retreated from her face, as it became more and more evident that the house was absolutely empty.

The next second she found herself outside again, even though she wasn't aware that she had walked out…But even while she was trying to remember, her steps already carried her away from this place. She just wanted to be as far away from here as possible.

So her greatest worry had come true. He was gone again and hadn't even bothered to say goodbye… As if he'd been in too much of a hurry to see her off… Or maybe he had wanted to, but hadn't found her; after all she had been in the hospital the entire time… whatever it was, she wouldn't find out, because he was gone again…

Actually she had already put it behind herself… She had been prepared that he'd leave and she had (more or less) accepted it, but only because she had been sure that he'd be killed if he would stay here… But now he had actually been allowed to stay – with his team – which had met the one condition he had set and yet he was gone again – but why would he have said that they were staying then? Maybe that had just been an act…

Even though Tsunade had given them a choice, it had been clear somehow that they wouldn't have let them leave… Danzô sure wouldn't have allowed that… So maybe it had just been an act… They had agreed on staying here, just so that they could make their escape without any hindrance… Most likely it would have even been dangerous for them to stay here, considering the so very obvious aversion Danzô held towards them – and then Danzô was exactly the kind of person you could imagine to break into your bedroom at night and kill you in your sleep…

Maybe this has been the only way for them to get away unharmed… Still she wished she had known so earlier. She had really believed he'd come back now, if she had known this before, rather than merely assuming it (because she had been kind of sceptical the entire time, but she had blamed that on her natural pessimism) then she wouldn't have raised her hopes again and wouldn't feel this disappointed now…

So what should she do now? She'd have to get away from here as quick as possible and hope that no one would see her, so she wouldn't have to tell anyone… This way they'd have more time to make their escape until someone else noticed their absence, which hopefully wouldn't happen too soon…

It was really hard to think rationally through this situation, all she wanted was to retreat into her shell or just somewhere nice and start crying, because she could already feel a suffocating lump built up in her throat. She couldn't go to the hospital right now – churned up and above all distracted as she was she'd probably end up with killing someone, so –

"Sayuri?"

She was ripped out of her thoughts as she heard her name and came to a stop, not even two steps away from the person who must have called her. His chest was right in front of her face, so she had to look up to see who it was.

"Sasuke!" Her eyes widened, as she recognized him and she stared with a startled expression into his face. She had been so lost in thoughts that she hadn't even realized he was there and would have probably run right into him if he hadn't called her attention to him…

"You're there…" A disbelieving smile took form on her lips and relief was clearly written all over her features…

He confirmed her rather obvious observation with a light nod and scrutinized her closely before he asked: "What are you doing here?"

Now the startled look made its comeback – what did he think she could possible be doing in the Uchiha-district? – but then she realized that she had apparently walked farther than she had thought and was long out of it already…

"Oh…" She studied her surroundings and it took her some time to realize where exactly she was, until she remembered his question and now did think that it deserved an answer after all…

"I-I meant to visit you…but you weren't there…" She really didn't know why she felt so stupid while saying this, but she couldn't help but to clasp her hands in front of herself and look over his shoulder rather than into his face…

He still observed her with this inscrutable face and there was a light frown on his forehead, as if he didn't know what to make of her behaviour.

"Then come along." The Uchiha murmured in his husky voice and now drew Sayuri's gaze back to his. Another beaming and yet somewhat confused smile appeared on her lips and her grey-blue eyes seemed to be shining, as she nodded her head and then followed right after him, as he took the first step into the direction she had just come from.

They walked in complete silence, which gave Sayuri some time to think and calm down again. Apart from that, she was rather busy with biting back a stupid grin, which tried its best to manifest on her lips – hard to believe just how good it felt to know she had been wrong…

Once they reached his home, he opened the door and waited for her to go in, before he did so himself and closed the door behind him again. Sayuri turned her head into his direction, not really knowing what to do now, when she saw him walk past her and head towards the kitchen. She followed right after him, but stopped as her dog squeezed past her and ran to the end of the corridor, which led to the garden. She didn't really know if she should call him back, but then decided against it and stepped into the dreary and dark kitchen. The table was turned over and there were water stains on the carpet, right in front of the fridge and same as in her house there were glass and porcelain shards scattered all across the floor, even thought the bigger ones were piled up in a corner – weird that she hadn't noticed that as she had first peered into this room…

Slightly indecisive, she stood in the doorway, and narrowed her eyes reflexively, as Sasuke turned the light on, before he walked to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. He drank right out of it, probably because his glasses were, same as hers, all but shattered, before he stepped back and leaned against the kitchen counter, from where he shot a questioning glance at the violet-haired girl, who still looked kind of misplaced – neither in nor out of the room…

Taking this as an invitation, Sayuri finally entered and walked to the place where she had used to sit, when she had still lived here and groped for the thin cushion on the actually green but at the moment dust grey parquet. She then shook the seat cushion to get rid of the shards and splinters, before she laid it back to where it had lain and sat down there.

"Where have you been?" She asked eventually as she couldn't stand the silence, even though she didn't mean to be nosy…

"Tsunade wanted to talk to me…" He looked slightly irritated as he said that, there must be a lot of these meetings ahead of him - not to forget all the paper work…

"What about the others? I came here earlier but there was no one around…"

He cast a musing glance at her, while he placed the bottle he'd still been holding, on the counter next to him, before he murmured: "Don't know… probably in their houses…"

"Houses…?" Sayuri's eyes popped open in surprise and she couldn't help to feel kind of glad about this information. "So they are not living in here?"

"Why should they? There are enough houses here…"

She nodded slightly and looked at the floor in front of her crossed legs… She had nearly forgotten that this entire district, including all the buildings here, belonged officially to him now – back then they hadn't lived in this house because there hadn't been any other place around, but because it had been their mission…

"And they really agreed to stay here… I mean they have nothing to do with Konoha, right?" She asked in a hesitant tone and cast a fleeting glance at him, before she noticed a big shard of glass right next to her, which reflected the light from the lamp above it – otherwise she probably wouldn't have seen it, so she picked it up and put it to the side to where the others were lying.

"If they hadn't we wouldn't be here now…" He stated calmly, apparently unaware of what his words did to her… it's not like she didn't know that this was his only reason for being here now, but she really didn't need a reminder…

Her eyes fell again on the shard she had just put aside and then on all the other mostly smaller ones around her, which looked so much more valuable than they actually were, as they glistened there on the floor, like tiny crystals… crystalline scrap… Her small hands wandered over the floor and she picked up more and more of the sharp glass fragments, which she then piled up on top of the bigger one.

Here it was again: Silence. She couldn't think of anything to say now, not after these last words and he didn't seem to be in a talkative mood either… She couldn't stand this… it wasn't the nice, pleasant kind of silence, you sometimes had when all words were redundant… This was merely a tense, oppressive silence, just because they had nothing to say to each other…

Even though she had tried her best to deny it, it became almost impossible now… They just didn't fit together: they were both far too reticent, which was just so obvious right now and besides he was too unapproachable and blunt and she was too insecure and sensitive… a really bad combination – he'd hurt her, without even planning to, or knowing about it and she would keep it to herself, simply because she couldn't voice her opinion and she'd end up with interpreting more into his words and actions than there actually was and over the time it would pile up and none of them could become happy this way and actually for nothing… considering all this, she couldn't believe how they had actually gotten so far… they really seemed the unlikeliest people to ever get close to each other…

She shut her eyes briefly and took a deep breath, while her hands were still busy with roaming about the floor and collecting all the broken pieces. She looked up again, as she perceived some movement to her side and realized that Sasuke was walking into her direction. He knelt down on the floor next to her, so Sayuri tilted her head into his direction a bit. Her vacant eyes wandered down as she felt his hand on hers, but her faraway expression remained unaltered. He raised her hand up and turned it around, before he swept the tiny glass particles from her palm and let his fingers wander over the tiny cuts and scratches.

"You should be more careful…" His pitch black eyes rested on her open palm, before he directed them upwards again and looked into her slightly startled and yet noticeably downcast face. He moved his hand upwards and brushed a strand of her long hair, which had escaped her ponytail, behind her shoulder, before he placed his hand on her cheek and gently stroked his thumb over it.

Sayuri's eyes widened slightly and she could feel her heartbeat increase rapidly in merely a second, as he drew her closer to him and pressed his lips on hers. After a moment of confusion, she returned the kiss and turned her upper body around, while he slung his arms around her waist and kept her in a tight embrace. Sayuri cupped both her hands around his face and let them run over his smooth skin, before their lips parted and they stared deep into each others eyes.

Every bit of sadness had vanished from Sayuri's face and the corners of her lips were twisted upwards in a faint smile. She placed another soft kiss on his lips, much shorter now, before she withdrew her hands from his face and wrapped them around his neck, enjoying every second of being close to him. He gently ran a hand over her hair, while she buried her face in his shoulder, before he stroked over her back with his fingertips and smirked lightly about the contented sigh she heaved.

In return for his caresses she placed a light kiss in the crook of his neck and moved her fingers in little circles over the nape of his neck, until she felt how he closed his hands around her upper arms and pressed her back slightly. Before she could even complain or at least frown about being pushed away, his lips found hers again and he engaged her in a deep, longing kiss, which they only broke as the need for air became impossible to ignore any longer.

Heavily breathing and feeling slightly dizzy, Sayuri leaned herself against his chest, while he again wrapped his arms around her and held her in a possessive embrace. He placed a soft kiss on her hair and caused the girl in his arms to turn her beaming face up to him, before he, regardless of all the shards and the dirt, slumped backwards and pulled her with him. She gasped in surprise, but the grin on her face only widened, before she propped herself up on his chest to look into his eyes. She scrutinized him for quite some time, before she cast her lids down briefly and shook her head, with a light smile on her lips.

"I still can't believe you're really back…" She whispered and added in her mind: _'I can't believe this is actually happening…'_

"Hn." He merely shrugged his typical, anti-climatic reply and directed his deep black eyes to the ceiling.

With a pensive expression, Sayuri gazed into his blank face and wrinkled her forehead before she asked: "What will you do now?"

His eyes left the spot of ceiling they had been focussed on and locked with hers, before he raised an eyebrow and murmured: "We'll see…"

Again with a light smirk on his face and an ambiguous look in his eyes, he raised his upper body, while his hands wandered over her back again and drew her closer to him. Sayuri wrapped her arms around his neck at once and grinned into the kiss, while a feeling of relief and contentedness wandered through her body and drove out all the negative feelings.

Maybe it was true and they weren't a perfect match, no actually she knew they weren't, but that didn't matter… It was this feeling… the simple fact that he could stir her blood with a single look… that he could make her forget about everything else with a simple touch and that he could dispel all the doubts and fears from her mind with a single kiss… That's what it was all about and as long as that feeling didn't change, it would be okay and the rest… well they could work on that, after all, the one thing they had plenty of was time…

The end.

* * *

It took quite some time but this is the end. I really hope you enjoyed reading this story just about as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks to everyone who read or even favourited my story and of course to everyone who took the time to leave a review – I really enjoyed reading them so again thank you!

I had such a good time with this story that I'm planning on writing a sequel, which will then focus more on Sasuke's and Sayuri's relationship, but only if I'm able to come up with enough ideas that are worth writing down – and beforehand at best and not in the course of writing, as it was the case with this one, which might explain the really chaotic structure, I guess I have to apologize for…

Anyway once I know I'll write so here and it'd be really great if you could also find the time to read the sequel. Thanks in advance – hope to see you soon^^


	52. A N

Hey everyone. I just uploaded the sequel – it's called '_Against all odds'_.

It takes place about 1 ½ months after Team Hebi is allowed to live in Konoha and is mainly about Sasuke and Sayuri and how they try to figure out their relationship to each other, but also about other things, but I'm not going to tell yet…

I'm not really happy with how the first chapters turned out but it's getting better – at least I hope so… Anyway enjoy reading!


End file.
